Post Office

The protagonist of Post Office, Henry (“Hank”) Chinaski, is an antihero and a somewhat unreliable narrator. He’s middle-aged, around 33 at the beginning of the novel and around 49 by the end. As Bukowski’s fictional alter ego, Hank rejects conventional ambitions, approaching work, love, and conventional social structures with cynicism. For example, regarding his first post office job, he says, “I learned from the drunk up the hill […] that they would hire damned near anybody, and so I went and the next thing I knew I had this leather sack on my back and was hiking around at my leisure” (13). His occupation as a substitute and later full-time postal worker shapes his identity. The job’s drudgery, confrontations with supervisors, and punishing conditions emphasize the dehumanizing aspects of modern labor, thematically foregrounding Menial Labor and the Degradation of the Body and Spirit.

His refusal to conform, despite personal cost, never changes, establishing him as a character who values autonomy over societal approval. The story is told entirely through his perspective, which highlights raw, often abrasive observations. However, his heavy drinking, impulsive behavior, and occasional cruelty fragment his narration, complicating his credibility and forcing readers to weigh his descriptions against his unreliability.