Why You Should Read Charles Bukowski’s Factotum

There are some golden nuggets of life wisdom here.

It was my first time reading the infamous Charles Bukowski, after a long wait that I can only blame myself for.

I realize now that I should have picked up his works earlier.

Why?

In some metaphysical sense, I feel like the “down and out” lifestyle of the protagonist is describing my life.

Actually, he’s figuratively (no, definitely not literally) describing all of our lives.

I’m definitely not hopping from place to place having one night stands with random girls. Nor am I a drunk, alcoholic, lazy, unemployed man based in the USA.

That’s all Henry Chinaski, the protagonist of Factotum by Charles Bukowski

But we’ve all got a bit of “Chinaski” in us. After finishing the book, I realized that this is both a good and bad thing that’s relevant to us.

The Bad(?)

It’s not really “bad.” It’s more of a reminder to not become too slack.

Yeah, I’ll be honest with you: Chinaski’s not an admirable man. He’s slowly wasting his life away, he doesn’t have the will to fix himself up…and he’s got the crabs before. Yikes.