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  • Factotum by Charles Bukowski book cover
  • Factotum by Charles Bukowski book cover
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Factotum

by Charles Bukowski

A writer on the margins of wartime America

$16.47 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

A writer on the margins of wartime America

Set across World War II-era America, *Factotum* follows aspiring writer Henry Chinaski as he moves between cities and a succession of odd jobs. Work offers temporary money but little stability, while his life is shaped by drinking and a persistent pull toward writing. The novel’s autobiographical framing places the everyday economics of survival alongside Chinaski’s resistance to settling into conventional work, giving the book a portrait of precarious urban life through one drifting figure.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in fiction about aspiring writers and lives shaped by unstable work.
  • Readers exploring Charles Bukowski’s fictional world or mid-century American settings.
  • Readers comfortable with subject matter involving alcoholism and adult urban life.

Themes

Aspiring writersPrecarious workAlcoholismUrban lifeWartime America

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Charles Bukowski's posthumous legend continues to grow. Factotum is a masterfully vivid evocation of slow-paced, low-life urbanity and alcoholism, and an excellent introduction to the fictional world of Charles Bukowski.

One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate autobiographical novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces, and drunken brawls, as he makes his bitter, brilliant way from one drink to the next.

"The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles."--Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author

"He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels."--Leonard Cohen, songwriter

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