Factotum is a semi-autobiographical novel by Charles Bukowski. It recounts several years of Bukowski's life prior to finding success as a writer. This is my first Bukowski novel, and I (like many other readers) have mixed feelings about Bukowski's writing. While I appreciate his honest rendition of “life as a bum”, I disliked his treatment of some subjects, particularly women.
The novel begins in New Orleans, where the protagonist and Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, has moved in search of something different from his hometown of Los Angeles. Chinaski drifts between jobs before running out of money, upon which he moves back to Los Angeles, where he abruptly shows up on his parents’ doorstep in the middle of the night. He is arrested for public drunkenness, kicked out of his parents’ house, and finds and loses several jobs. He subsequently drifts back into alcoholism, enabled and encouraged by his girlfriend Jan, before possibly killing a man in a fight at a racing track. He leaves Jan, striking out for Miami and a new beginning, but it's much the same story there. Eventually, Chinaski moves back to LA yet again and tries to get established as a writer, though he continues drinking and drifts between jobs. The novel ends with Chinaski, having just failed yet again to get a job, patronizing a strip club.
When I first started reading the book, I intensely disliked Chinaski. Chinaski is like an unsavory mix between Razumikhin from Crime and Punishmentand Bartleby from Bartleby the Scrivener. Like Razumikhin, Chinaski believes himself superior to all his fellow blue-collar workers and deadbeats. Also like Razumikhin, Chinaski is poor and unable to keep in work. He wants to be a writer, but early in the book confides in the reader that he is unable to keep a typewriter, having too frequently to pawn them for food. So, he resorts to writing everything out longhand. There's a parallel to Razumikhin there. And like Bartleby, Chinaski seems to be infected with a particularly virulent case of the “I prefer not to"s. When a coworker is given a $2 raise for a 4 year work anniversary, Chinaski demands the same raise, despite it being his first day and making the already decent wage of $17/day. When the owner explains that he can't give Chinaski the raise, he quits and finds another job making $12/day, $5 less than at his previous job. Bartleby's behavior is interesting because it is enigmatic. No one understands what his private antipathy to the world is. Chinaski, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have an antipathy to the world, but rather seems to believe that he's too good to be doing this kind of low-skill, menial work. It's not an appealing look, but I do give him points for honesty.
Despite my misgivings towards Chinaski at the beginning of the book, I came to like his character after a while. The episode with his parents after moving back to LA the first time was particularly compelling. His father is a real piece of shit, something Bukowski mentioned multiple times during his life. Bukowski wrote a novel, Ham on Rye, about his early life and the dysfunctional family he came from. In Factotum, just seeing Chinaski briefly interacting with his father is enough to empathize with him to some extent. Chinaski is in need of therapy, but unable to access it he instead turns to alcohol, deleterious relationships with women, and a misanthropic outlook on life and work.
While one can probably excuse Bukowski's listlessness and lack of motivation due to his bad upbringing, I don't think I can conscion Bukowski's descriptions of and general attitudes towards women. The novel is brimming with not only sexist but sometimes violent imagery towards women. At one point Chinaski briefly considers raping a woman, not out of desire but more based on the circumstances of them being alone together. I am not the first person by any means to criticize Bukowski's treatment of women in his writing, so I won't say more on the subject, but suffice to say that I was thoroughly uncomfortable with the general tone he took when describing women.
Something strange about Bukowski is his almost cult status. He has a dedicated following in a certain demographic, mainly young white artistic and musical types. I think, after reading this book, I kind of see the appeal. Bukowski presents a real example of a person who completely rejected all responsibility and social mores. Forget getting married, finding a steady job, having kids, buying a house with a white picket fence, serving your country, and all the other expectations that society holds for you. Drink to excess. Womanize. Live in filth, sleep on park benches, smoke. Basically, Bukowski's writing presents an alternative to what many young men are told they should expect for themselves, what they owe their family and community. I think there's something powerfully alluring about that, and no one to my knowledge speaks to that as powerfully or poignantly as Bukowski.
The novel does a great job of describing the menial and mind-numbingly tedious jobs available to a young man in the 1940s. It reads something like Steinbeck, perhaps like Cannery Row. There are many interesting characters that come and go, like a French janitor who met Picasso, and a wealthy one-armed sugar daddy. The storytelling and writing talent is superb. Also, this isn't really due to Bukowski, but the design and cover of the book were some of the best I've ever seen. The cover art (the same as the picture above) was exactly what I like, and the book was nicely sized. Not too small, good sized font, easy to read and transport. It was an excellently made book.
Overall, I think I liked the book. It was occasionally hard to read, sometimes disgusting, sometimes sad, but all of it was well-written and entertaining. I just wish Bukowski wasn't so damn misogynistic. Despite that, I think I will read more from Bukowski in the future. I'm interested in his early life, so I'll probably read Ham on Rye. Post Office interests me, so I may also read that at some point. I might look into some of his poetry, but I'm not a big poetry reader. I may also see if I can find a place to watch the film version of Factotum, which has surprisingly good reviews.