Factotum

Front Cover
Virgin Books, 2009 - Fiction - 163 pages

'Not since George Orwell has the condition of being down-and-out been so well recorded' New York Times

Henry Chinaski, an outcast, a loner and a drunk, drifts around America from one dead-end job to another, from one woman to another and from one bottle to the next. Uncompromising, gritty, hilarious and confessional in turn, his downward spiral is peppered with black humour.

Factotum follows Charles Bukowski's bestselling Post Office, his highly autobiographical first novel. Bukowski's Beat Generation writing reflects his tough upbringing, his succession of menial jobs and his experience of low life urban America. He died in 1994 and is widely acknowledged as one of the most distinctive writers of the last fifty years.

'Funny and sharp, observant, clever with details and honest' Times Literary Supplement

Other editions - View all

About the author (2009)

During his lifetime Bukowski published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose including the novels Post Office (1971) and Factotum (1975). He is one of America's most distinctive writers and a voice for both the outsider and low life Americana.

Bibliographic information