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The Daily Dose/July 2, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around The Human Experience...
CAPSULE BOOK REVIEW: Post Office by Charles Bukowski: Post Office is Bukowski's first novel. As noted in our recent review of Bukowski's Ham On Rye, he got a fairly late start in the fiction racket, cutting his teeth in the rough and tumble world of poetry before getting around to writing Post Office when he was 49.
Just The Facts, Ma'am: Post Office chronicles Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, who now finds himself knee deep in a career at the post office. He starts out as a substitute mail carrier, quits, then signs back up again as a mail sorter before quitting again after a dozen years and there is enough official documentation in Chinaski's file - none of them Employee of the Year citations - to suggest he resigned just before being fired.
Ready, Aim, Fire: Chinaski's work at the post office in Los Angeles is repetitive and more or less mindless. It's so boring that through it all it's rather easy to see where a postal worker with a screw or two loose could lose sight of the importance of getting mail delivered on time and start shooting up some of his co-workers.
It was obvious Post Office was written before Ham on Rye because Bukowski's development as a novelist is plain, not unlike the development of a baseball pitcher who, as a youngster throws but after a few years learns how to pitch. It's the difference really, between writing a really good book about the soul-stripping work at the post office and opening a vein and bleeding while writing about a childhood that was not the basis for Leave It To Beaver.
But Bukowski's brilliance is apparent. While Post Office doesn't have as many brilliant insights as Ham On Rye it does have its share
Write This Down: In fact, Bukowski does a very good job of cutting to the quick of the Human Experience. The line comes from a chapter where he is working nights at the post office and his current girlfriend is working days at something or another and she not only kept a dog, but also two parakeets, whose incessant chirping usually keeps Henry awake.
One day Henry decides he has had enough and gathers the dog and the bird cage and goes to the backyard and sets the bird cage down and opens the door. Both birds look around curiously. It is plain they know their options: stay or go, and Bukowski nicely sums up their - and our - choices:
They couldn't understand and they could…They had their food and water right there, but what was that open space?
That Open Space: Well, there it is friends, Bukowski laying the Human Experience bare, adding his offering to human letters' noble and ongoing attempt to help us figure out why we're here.
In-Game Disclaimer: You know, stuff like this is subjective. What we find meaningful may well cause you to yawn. There are six billion people on this planet and not all of them are going to find a drunk mail sorter's ramblings about whether a couple of parakeets do or do not leave their cage relevant. But for our money this is the Human Experience boiled down to a couple of lines. You can stay in your cage, where your food and water is, or you can spread your wings and give the open sky a shot. Your call. And like the parakeets in the cage, you would do well to trust your instincts, too.
Standard Internet Disclaimer: Though Gaylon is fairly well read he is not Einstein for Pete's sake and is not a professional book reviewer. Reviews are based on his own personal tastes, are completely subjective and not measured against established literary standards. He has a habit of re-reading selected favorites and books that were published as early as the 20th century.
We Interrupt This Program For A Word From The Ratings Department: Following Is The Official Writer's Shack Capsule Review Rating scale:
EX - Excellent; as good as the medium can produce in every respect.
VG - Very Good. Well worth your time.
GD - Good. More or less worth your time.
AR - All Right. Not completely without merit.
SP - Nothing of substance; a steaming pile, utterly without merit.
Final Rating: VG. Bukowski does what we expect of our best writers: take a shot at explaining why we're here and Post Office is a funny and relevant contribution. Not as great like Ham On Rye, but good in the same way The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is good but not great like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnis great.
HALF DAY: Today is the midpoint of the year. There were 182 days in 2011 before today, and there are 182 days remaining after today. We find this day rather significant, in a thoughtful sort of way, though we weren't made aware of it until last year, which is funny because regular readers of this crap have put up with columns about the history of the Gregorian calendar, so plainly stuff like this interests us and we we're surprised we didn't notice this until last year.
Dry, Technical Matter: Of course, Half Day can only be celebrated in years with 365 days.
LET FREEDOM RING…IN A COUPLE OF DAYS: The Continental Congress takes time out from bickering over the wording to what will become the Declaration of Independence and approves the Lee Resolution, which calls for severing ties with Great Britain, on this date in 1776.
More Great Moments In Freedom: The ship Amistad, sailing off the coast of Cuba, is taken over by the slaves it is carrying on this date in 1839. However, instead of returning to Africa, the ship's navigator steers them off the American coast, where a revenue cutter took them into custody near Long Island, New York.
Really Enlightened Times They Lived In: Despite the fact they had not committed a crime, the slaves were put on trial. They were claimed as salvage by the Americans who had taken them into custody and as property by the ship's owners, among other claims. They were tried in US District Court, which sided for the Africans. The government appealed to the US Circuit Court and lost before going 0-3 with their loss in the Supreme Court. The Africans were returned home in 1842.
Great Moments In Religion/Assassination: Believing he had been commanded by God to do so, Charles Guiteau shoots President James Garfield on this date in 1881. Garfield would die in September, the second president to be assassinated. Guiteau would be found guilty of murder the following January, and executed the following June.
Get Out Your History Books: Joe DiMaggio hits in his 45th consecutive game on this date in 1941, setting a new major league record. The old record had been set by Wee Willie Keeler in 1897. DiMaggio would eventually hit in 56 straight games, a record that still stands.
Thought For The Day: You are all low, consummate jackasses! - Presidential assassin Charles Guiteau, to his jury after being found guilty of killing President James Garfield. To the end Guiteau believed he would be acquitted and had been planning a lecture tour and his own run for the presidency,
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The first two provinces to join Canada after Canadian independence in 1867 were Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, on July 15, 1870.
Today's Stumper: Of the four men who have assassinated US presidents, how many were arrested, tried and executed for their crime? - Answer next time!
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