Charles Bukowski — Factotum (Book Review)

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Factotum is a nice, chill book. It’s fairly short and has an easy vocabulary. Its simplistic writing style makes the unexpectedly deep parts stand out even more. And sometimes, simple is beautiful.

The book seems to be about a depressed and disaffected man, Henry Chinaski, in the 1940s constantly going around USA working different jobs and living in different places. It contains a lot of traveling. The book can be really depressing. But also funny. But also disgusting, particularly the way it describes women.

The book addresses problems that are relatable to every human:

Nothing is worse than to finish a good shit, then reach over and find the toilet paper container empty. Even the most horrible human being on earth deserves to wipe his ass.

Okay. Let’s get serious.

Beginning

I liked the very beginning of the book. Take in the relationship between Henry’s mood and the weather. It’s raining and he’s depressed (or maybe it’s really because of the people)

I arrived in New Orleans in the rain at 5 o’clock in the morning. I sat around in the bus station for a while but the people depressed me so I took my suitcase and went out in the rain and began walking.

And he’s happy when it’s sunny:

I went out on the street, as usual, one day and strolled along. I felt happy and relaxed. The sun was just right.

Loneliness

I also liked the subtleties of the character’s loneliness, or indifference to life. Sometimes Henry just drops random depression bombs.

Henry seems like he’s tired of life:

When I arrived in St. Louis it was very cold, about to snow, and I found a room in a nice clean place, a room on the second floor, in the back. It was early evening and I was having one of my depressive fits so I went to bed early and somehow managed to sleep.

And while he doesn’t seem to have a high motivation to commit suicide, he seems to see it as an option for peace:

I drank slowly and began to think again of getting a gun and doing it quickly — without all the thought and talk. A matter of guts. I wondered about my guts.

He tries to cope with his negative emotions through different ways. Whether it’s hooking up with women, drinking, or sleeping. He thinks that the world is against him.

When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn’t have you by the throat.

He just wants to implode and disappear.

“Someday,” I told Jan, “when they demonstrate that the world has four dimensions instead of just three, a man will be able to go for a walk and just disappear. No burial, no tears, no illusions, no heaven or hell. People will be sitting around and they’ll say, ‘What happened to George?’ And somebody will say, ‘Well , I don’t know. He said he was going out for a pack of cigarettes.’”

(Oh-kay, Kurt Vonnegut.)

Solitude

This book can be motivating for people who feel alone, to maybe try to find some joy in solitude. I really liked this quote about solitude:

It was the first time I had been alone for five days. I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me.

Reminds me of this French guy.

Closing Thoughts

That’s all I wanted to say about this book. It was a fairly short read. Thanks for reading!