Women

Read from Saturday, March 5th to Sunday, March 6th.

Women, my second book from Charles Bukowski, was one dirty read from the classic dirty old man.  Henry Chinaski picks up where we left him at the end of Post Office.  But this time he is mildly successful.  He has published a few books of poems, and now he is starting to get famous.  And groupies.  This is not good, for Henry Chinaski (Bukowski's alter ego), has a weakness for two things, booze and women.  This story is not really a story, but more of a diary of his sexual escapades for the few years of his life while he was making it big.

Chinaski has been published, and he has many speaking engagements around the country to read his poems.  While he is famous, he is not rich yet, so he is obligated to do these speaking tours to stay afloat.  One by one, the women throw themselves at him, and he is powerless to resist.  Lydia is first, and she is pure crazy when she thinks that Henry is cheating on her, or when they have legitimately broken up and he moves on.  She smashes cars and breaks into his apartment, but he still loves her and goes back to her multiple times.  Tammie is a pill junkie that used to be a hooker.  But she is a redhead, and Chinaski can't seem to break free from her.  Finally, at one reading, he meets three women, and gets all their numbers.  One by one, he calls them, has sex with them, and hangs around until he gets bored, or there is a fight, and he goes out and calls the next.  The last one, Sara, owns a health food store, and it is her that he ultimately decides to be with when the novel ends.  

Of course along the way there are dozens more women.  Women write to him, and he invites them to come visit and stay with him.  There are multiple trips to the airport.  Also, the sex scenes are very graphic, and it is borderline pornographic at times.  Using all dirty language, he describes in detail how each woman is different from the others.  Their different styles, the size of their body parts, their legs.  Most of the time he can't even perform because he is too drunk.  Chinaski is constantly drinking. 

Eventually the women become too numerable, and he starts hurting some of them when they overlap. He has to cancel Thanksgiving plans with one because another is coming into town for sex.  This causes Chinaski to have a minor breakdown.  How can he have become such an incredible asshole, he wonders.  He tries to make it up to some of them, but there is not much he can do.  In the end, he realizes he wants to be with Sara, and the book ends with him turning down an invitation from a groupie so he can spend the night in with Sara.  I read later in a biography of Bukowski online, that this girl is who he eventually settled down with.

It was very entertaining to read about this kind of lifestyle.  While it may seem fun on the outside, Bukowski does a good job detailing how mentally draining it can become after awhile.  You cannot have any moral standards.  It reminds me a lot of the Showtime show Californication, because the main character Hank Moody is a sexaholic struggling writer in LA.  However, Hank has a family that he is trying desperately to get back to and settle down with. 

I really enjoyed Women, and I am very curious to check out some of his poetry now as well.  While graphic, it is also very funny at times, and he has some wonderful insights on women, booze, and why we do the things we do.  Four out of five stars.