Women (novel)

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

1st edition (publ. Black Sparrow)

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

At times, Women has the tendency to become chauvinistic. But 'Women' focuses more on the many dissatisfactions Chinaski faced with each new woman he encountered. Aside from Chinaski's discontent, Bukowski added a certain comedic flair to his novel that may expose some women to the way a man sees the world.

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 week-end 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.

Bukowski himself drew the picture of the girl on the cover of the book. The book was simultaneously published in Australia by Wild and Woolley, who bought a chunk of the first Black Sparrow Press print run.

Supposedly, the series called 'Californication' was based at least partially on this novel and Bukowski's life in general.