Post Office by Charles Bukowski is a semi-autobiographical narrative of Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s literary alter-ego. The story follows Chinaski, a middle aged alcoholic, through his daily life of mundane work, drunken escapades and gambling stints while he somehow manages to maintain a sense of superiority over everyone around him.

Part 1  With Betty, his “shackjob,” he drinks away their income in an open relationship. Henry becomes a mailman accidentally after signing on for an allegedly “easy job helping to deliver Christmas cards”. He goes on to take the exam to become a regular mail carrier. His supervisor, The Stone, is an archetypal villain with a god complex and uses his connections with higher ups to hold power over Bukowski and the other newbies. The daily grind of delivering mail in the rain, and dealing with dogs and crazy people, affects Chinaski both physically and emotionally. Pretty soon afterwards he quits this job and Betty kicks him out.

Part 2 Henry then marries a “beautiful, oversexed, rich and crazy Texas girl” named Joyce. He enjoys small-town life in Texas, but eventually follows her back to Los Angeles. After a fleeting stint with another mundane job and equally typical supervisor, he is served with divorce papers from Joyce who wants to leave him for someone she met at work.

Part 3

He moves out and does not contest the divorce. Henry and Betty get back together briefly and tragically. Betty drinks herself to death with alcohol they had received for Christmas and Henry is left to help her sons with the funeral arrangements. After, Henry goes to the race track, having found that he is luckiest right after a funeral. There he meets Vi, a colleague from the post office, and they have an unsuccessful one-night fling because he is too drunk to perform.

After this unfortunate night, Henry enjoys brief success at the track, giving him a taste of the high life. He feels important and powerful with Mary Lou, a women he rescues from being evicted for being a drunk (a reality that Henry escapes from despite always being intoxicated or hungover or simply fails to mention must happen to him often), and they enjoy themselves until Henry discovers he is being set up for a mugging. He implies that she could have gotten far more out of him by staying with him than by letting her boyfriend beat him. With His “luck” gone, Henry returns to work at the post office during the Los Angeles riots.

Part 4 He lives with a hippie writer, Fay, with whom he has a daughter, Marina. When the baby begins crawling, Henry is abandoned, again without being told directly. With his daughter in New Mexico, Henry finds himself in declining health, and his supervisor is out to get him.

He receives a series of four official notifications of the Post Office’s intention to discipline and dismiss him for absenteeism. Bukowski dedicates Part 5 of the book to these notices.

In Part 6, Henry details the physical and emotional burden of clerical work and how it has drained the already shallow puddle of motivation he had. He mentions a fire he accidentally started and how that’s the reason why smoking is no longer allowed I the post office. Lastly, his decision to resign without complaining about anyone or anything sends him on an extended drinking spree after which he wakes up and decides to write this novel.