Women (novel)

This article is about the novel by Charles Bukowski. For the novel by T.C. Boyle, see The Women (novel). For the Icelandic novel by Steinar Bragi, see Konur (novel).
Women

First edition
Author Charles Bukowski
Cover artist Charles Bukowski
Country United States
Language English
Genre Autobiographical novel
Publisher Black Sparrow Press
Publication date
 1978
Pages 291
Preceded by Factotum
Followed by Ham on Rye

Women is a 1978 novel written by Charles Bukowski, starring his semi-autobiographical character Henry Chinaski. In contrast to Factotum, Post Office and Ham on Rye, Women is centered on Chinaski's later life, as a celebrated poet and writer, not as a dead-end lowlife. It does, however, feature the same constant carousel of women with whom Chinaski only finds temporary fulfillment.

Plot

Women focuses on the many dissatisfactions Chinaski faced with each new woman he encountered. One of the women featured in the book is a character named Lydia Vance; she is based on Bukowski's one-time girlfriend, the sculptress and sometime poet Linda King. Another central female character in the book is named "Tanya" who is described as a 'tiny girl-child' and Chinaski's pen-pal. They have a weekend tryst. The real-life counterpart to this character wrote a self-published chapbook about the affair entitled "Blowing My Hero" under the pseudonym Amber O'Neil.[1] The washed-up folksinger "Dinky Summers" is based on Bob Lind.[2]

In the book, Chinaski's nickname is Hank, which was one of Bukowski's nicknames.

Cover art

Bukowski himself drew the picture of the girl on the cover of the book.

Publication

The book was simultaneously published in Australia by Wild and Woolley, who bought a chunk of the first Black Sparrow Press print run.

Influences

When asked his favorite author, Chinaski responds, "Fante." John Fante was a major influence on Bukowski.[3] In 1980, he wrote the introduction for the reprint of Fante's 1939 novel Ask the Dust.

References

  1. ↑ Howard Sounes, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, Grove Press, 1998, p. 275.
  2. ↑ "KEY TO CHARACTERS IN BEAT AND BOHEMIAN LITERATURE". BohemiaLit.com. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Allen Barra, "Who was John Fante?" Salon, March 10, 2006.
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