The 'coming-of-age novel without the coming-of-age' — its main character, 'a 30-year-old boy' (p. 95)…
Reading a piece on <Bukowski Goes> (Changbi)…
You open your laptop, cigarette in mouth, skim news on a portal, then drop by 'JobKorea' and push your résumé and cover letter into a few suitable companies. You mark the announcement date for each on the calendar and bounce back to the portal. 'In that place veiled behind lethargy and a white curtain,' time drifts by. The occasional dusk walk around the neighborhood is the extent of your exercise. Sometimes you go out to congratulate a friend's wedding or a new job, regret 'why did I come,' hide your own story, congratulate their marriage and new job, adapt, get drunk, black out. 'I,' a 30-year-old job-hunter, have been running this 'shabby' race for over two years. In any case, 'even if there's an opening, I don't have the heart to push through it either.'
"I hadn't quite given up on vaguely hoping for change, but the summer didn't end. (…) That it rains and stops raining, back and forth. That many things are going on at once. And what else would there be?" (p. 206)
American writer Charles Bukowski's 'novels full of gaps and gristle'
Counted as the [Bukowski trilogy]: <Post Office> (1971), <Factotum> (1975), <Women> (1978)
All three are a kind of autobiographical fiction featuring 'Henry Chinaski,' a stand-in for the author.
Factotum: http://www.aladin.co.kr/shop/wproduct.aspx?ISBN=8954603513
It's true I don't have much ambition. But there should be a place for people without ambition — I mean, a better spot than the one usually left for them. What kind of damned person willingly accepts a life of jolting awake at 6:30 a.m. to an alarm clock, leaping out of bed, dressing, forcing down breakfast, defecating, urinating, brushing your teeth, combing your hair, and fighting traffic hell just to get to a place where you essentially make more money for someone else — and then be grateful for the chance to do so? —
Post Office: http://www.aladin.co.kr/shop/wproduct.aspx?ISBN=8932915407
"Love… is kind of like… you know the morning fog you see when you wake up, just before the sun comes out?
The 'fog' hangs there for a tiny moment, and then just burns off. Burns and vanishes — really fast. Love is fog that burns off with the first rays of reality."
Women: http://www.aladin.co.kr/shop/wproduct.aspx?ISBN=8932915458
"You want a whore. You're afraid of love." —p. 90—
Why does one always want more women? What are you trying to do? A new affair was thrilling, but it was hard, too. The first kiss, the first sex — always dramatic. People are interesting at first. Then slowly, and surely, they reveal all their flaws and their madness. To them I become more and more trivial. And they become more and more trivial to me. —p. 105—
The cheaper the woman, the better. And yet the women — the good women — scared me. Because in the end, they want my soul and the part of me that's left, the part I want to keep. At bottom, I wanted whores, cheap women, because they're fatal and cool and have no personal demands. When they leave, there's nothing to lose. At the same time, no matter how exorbitant the price, I wanted a gentle, kind woman. Either way, I lose. A strong man would give up both. I wasn't strong. So I kept wrestling wearily with women — with the idea of women. —p. 109—
References: Hankyoreh News — http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/book/343784.html
and Aladin reader comments, etc.
