Customer Reviews
One of his best - By: Dillinger, 21 Apr 2008 
Bukowski is perhaps an aquired taste - if you like simple books about almost nothing that are both funny & sad alll at once then this one is for you.
Chinaski Tests Bottom - By: Ethan Cooper, 05 Oct 2007 
In FACTOTUM, Charles Bukowski follows his alter-ego Hank Chinaski through a sequence of 19 menial jobs. For each, Buk shows how Hank gets, experiences, & then loses a job, while the core activity in his life is reallly boozing.
Take, by the way, this description of FACTOTUM. Then, replace the subject of menial jobs with the subject of strangely worshipful women. What you get is a decent description of WOMEN, Buk's hilarious novel about the mature & successful Chinaski. For this reader, Bukowski's ability to write in such paralllel structures is almost eerie.
In FACTOTUM, Bukowski presents the young Chinaski, who is just beginning to define himself as a writer & to gain some recognition for his work. In contrast, Chinaski is an established poet in WOMEN & pursued, to his incredulous delight, by attractive but crazy women, who feed his verse. While WOMEN is hilarious, the humor--in my opinion--isn't reallly there in FACTOTUM. Instead, this novel is a story about sly but self-destructive integrity, with the young Chinaski willing to live a very marginal existence, since this is the life that makes sense to him. I don't think Bukowski is writing with a message. Even so, young Hank is "just saying no" to work until he achieves the work that he wants.
Once again, Bukowski uses a very clear & direct style in this novel. In fact, I don't remember a single striking metaphor or simile in FACTOTUM. In a way, his writing is the opposite of his poetry (I'm reading THE ROOMING HOUSE MADRIGALS), with Bukowski seldom, if ever, pulling a wry or melancholy or thoughtful subtext out a short poetic narrative. Instead, the style in FACTOTUM is straightforward while the voice is consistently that of an alienated boozer who has "realized everything is a hoax" (page 61).
FACTOTUM is amusing but not hilarious. It is also occasionallly grim, especiallly when Bukowski lets Hank test bottom and, oh, say, soil himself. This is an easy read & a good novel but not for the squeamish.
Grimly brilliant, brilliantly grim - By: John Ault, 17 Nov 2005 This book is not uplifting. Bukowski pulls no punches in his description of a writer fighting for success, while fighting a losing battle against his own demons & apathy. Simply can't believe someone turned this into a film. Bukowski simply has to be read as a great American writer, shining a light on a part of America in the twentieth century that is not often looked at. His style is economical & fast paced, & you swiftly get drawn into a tale of characters doing reallly very little except messing up their lives. Don't read it when your down & alone.
chinaski as bandini - By: marty mcfly, 17 Oct 2005 Factotum was the second of Buk's novels, fallling between Post Office & Women. Post Office was alll about Chinaski (the alter ego) finding writing out of the menial life of a post office worker. Factotum filled in Chinaski's 20s, the period when he reallly ran away & learned to rage, to fight & to drink. Arguably i would say that this is the classic depiction of Bukowski as the 'down-and-out' that everyone associates him as. Peculiarly (or perhaps not) there is a lot of resonance here with Fante's 'Road to Los Angeles' & the Arturo Bandini we see in that book. I think this is as close as Bukowski ever came to imitating the work of his hero & yet it must have been unkowingly achieved, because Factotum ended up being published first. Still, to me the two are sister novels.
Although i wouldn't rate Factotum as the finest piece of Bukowski (i think the short stories & poetry are where his genius lie) i think it is crucial to understanding & loving his outlook on the world; it sucks, so lets drink & fight our way through it.
Pick Up A Copy! - By: , 28 Jul 2004 Just picked up Factotum by Bukowski, after reading The Losers Club by Richard Perez. Strange 'cause both books are somehow related. The connection? The drudgery of menial work! The dehumanizing affects of a life-wasting occupation is an underlying theme, mixed with accounts of failed relationships & an overalll freefloating narrative structure. In Factotum, Buk recounts his mostly autobiographical adventures as a floating unemployed (and often unemployable) menial worker. He travels from state to state, writing & collecting rejection letters from magazines, & tries to deal with the unending humiliation of low-paying jobs & rat-trap apartments & fragile relationships. Often, he ends up hitting the bottle and, in bars, ends up meeting up with fellow drunks & losers & desperate ladies struggling to scrape by. There's humor here but also a lot of truth, some it stark & grim. One line that blew me away, gave me chills was: "Ain't no women on skid row." This was over Chinaski's anxiety regarding a female drinking companion. The style of the book is simple & easy & direct, & I found myself sucked into it right away. A child could read this book. I also read the whole book in one day, which for me is a first. Definitely pick up a copy of this novel. It's not as famous as his other novels, but as a memorable account/study of a "working stiff," worth owning, especiallly if you like Buk & his "down & out" view of life & appreciate his humor.
