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Chinaski
Henry Charles "Hank" Chinaski is the literary alter ego of the American writer Charles Bukowski, appearing in five of Bukowski's novels, a number of his short stories and poems, and the films '' Barfly'' and ''Factotum''. Although much of Chinaski's biography is based on Bukowski's own life story, the Chinaski character is still a literary creation that is constructed with the veneer of what the writer Adam Kirsch calls "a pulp fiction hero." Works of fiction that feature the character include ''Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live With the Beasts'' (1965), ''Post Office'' (1971), '' South of No North'' (1973), ''Factotum'' (1975), ''Women'' (1978), ''Ham on Rye'' (1982), ''Hot Water Music'' (1983), '' Hollywood'' (1989), and ''Septuagenarian Stew'' (1990). He is also mentioned briefly in the beginning of Bukowski's last novel, ''Pulp'' (1994). Chinaski is a writer who worked for years as a mail carrier. An alcoholic, womanizing misanthrope, he serves as both the protagoni ...
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Chinaski (band)
Chinaski () is a Czech pop rock group. In 2005, they won an Anděl Award, granted by the Czech Academy of Popular Music, and repeated this success in 2007. They have also repeatedly placed in the top ranks of the Český slavík awards. History The group was established in 1987 as Starý Hrady (named after the village of Staré Hrady) by Pavel Grohman and Michal Novotný (known professionally as Michal Malátný). Later, they modified their original name to Starý hadry (Old Rags). Longtime frontman Petr Rajchert and Jiří Seydler joined in 1989; both were classmates of Michal Novotný. In 1994, the band renamed itself Chinaski after Henry Chinaski, the protagonist in Charles Bukowski's novels, and released an album with the same name. In September 1995, the song "Pojď si lehnout" (Come to Bed) saw the band's first video, directed by Jan Hřebejk. Chinaski's second album, ''Dlouhej kouř'' (Long Smoke - 1997), brought the band greater popularity as well as a number of n ...
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Ham On Rye (book)
''Ham on Rye'' is a 1982 semi-autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. Written in Bukowski's characteristically straightforward prose, the novel tells of his coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. Setting Like his previous works, ''Ham on Rye'' is set in Los Angeles where the author grew up. Bukowski keeps his descriptions of his hometown grounded in reality, paying more attention to the people that make up Los Angeles than to the city itself. This type of description does not venerate or idealize the city, a contrast to other so-called "Los Angeles Novels". Scenes outside of Los Angeles show Chinaski as an intruder, as with an early scene where he and his family are chased out of an orange grove. The story takes place at home, at his different schools, at the doctor's office (for his never-ending acne t ...
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Women (Bukowski Novel)
''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 Characters Introduction ''Women'' focuses on the many complications Chinaski faced with each new woman he encountered and had sexual relations with. When asked about his relationship to women, he said that they gave much more than he gave to the relationship, and this acts as a central foundation to the development of Chinaski as a character, especially in the beginning of the novel. One of the first women featured in the book, who also recurred throughout the novel through random phonecalls and thoughts, is a character named Lydia Vance; she is based on Bukowski's one-time ...
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Factotum (film)
''Factotum'' is a 2005 French-Norwegian dark comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Bent Hamer, adapted from the 1975 novel of the same name by Charles Bukowski. It stars Matt Dillon as Bukowski’s alter ego, Henry Chinaski. Although events in the book take place in Los Angeles in the 1940s, the film has a contemporary setting. Plot Henry 'Hank' Chinaski (Matt Dillon) is working toward becoming a writer while struggling with alcoholism and holding various menial jobs. The film follows Chinaski as he works at, and gets fired from, various jobs, which include cleaning a massive sculpture, delivering ice, working at a pickle factory, and at a bicycle supply warehouse. In the course of sampling the smorgasbord of short-lived occupations, he meets up with assorted eccentric, frequently alcoholic characters. The first woman Chinaski meets in a bar becomes his most consistent companion throughout the film. Jan (Lili Taylor), like Chinaski, is an alcoholic. He moves in and becom ...
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Barfly (film)
''Barfly'' is a 1987 American comedy -drama film directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway. The film is a semi-autobiography of poet/author Charles Bukowski during the time he spent drinking heavily in Los Angeles, and it presents Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski. The screenplay, written by Bukowski, was commissioned by the Iranian-born Swiss film director Barbet Schroeder, and it was published (with illustrations by the author) in 1984, when film production was still pending. The Kino Flo light, now a ubiquitous tool in the film industry, was specially created by Robby Müller's electrical crew for the bathroom scene with Henry and Wanda, which would have been difficult to light using the conventional lampheads available at the time. The film was "presented by" Francis Ford Coppola and features a cameo by Bukowski. It was entered into the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme D'or. Plot Henry Chinaski is a destitute a ...
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Factotum (novel)
''Factotum'' (1975) is a picaresque novel by American author Charles Bukowski. It is Bukowski’s second novel and a prequel to ''Post Office'' (1971). Plot Set in the 1940s, the plot follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's perpetually unemployed, alcoholic alter ego, who has been rejected from the World War II draft and makes his way from one menial job to the next (hence a ''factotum''). After getting into a fight with his father, Chinaski drifts through the seedy city streets of lower-class Los Angeles and other American cities in search of a job that will not come between him and his first love: writing. Much of the novel is dedicated to describing various menial jobs that Chinaski temporarily holds during the USA’s WWII economic boom. Even though some of Chinaski's jobs and colleagues are described with great detail, they all eventually end with him either abruptly leaving or being fired. He is consistently rejected by the only publishing house he respects, but is driven to ...
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Hollywood (Bukowski Novel)
''Hollywood'' is a 1989 novel by Charles Bukowski which fictionalizes his experiences writing the screenplay for the film ''Barfly'' and taking part in its tumultuous journey to the silver screen. It is narrated in the first person. Plot Adopting the stylized alter-ego, Henry 'Hank' Chinaski, a character used in previous novels, this book relates his experiences of working with a director, finding financial backing, losing financial backing, writing the screenplay and finally completing the film, ''Barfly''. The seemingly preposterous exchanges and occurrences within these pages leave the reader with the conviction that Hank Chinaski's life was truly stranger than fiction. Writing The novel is a roman à clef, in which Bukowski is named Henry Chinaski, and his wife Linda is named Sarah. His friend, the poet John Thomas Idlet, is named John Galt. His German translator Carl Weissner is named Karl Vossner. Photographer Michael Montfort is named Michael Huntington. The film ''Barfl ...
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Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted home city of Los Angeles. Bukowski's work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. The FBI kept a file on him as a result of his column '' Notes of a Dirty Old Man'' in the LA underground newspaper ''Open City''. Bukowski published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses beginning in the early 1940s and continuing on through the early 1990s. He wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books during the course of his career. Some of these works include his ''Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window'', published by his friend and fellow poet Charles Potts, and ...
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Post Office (novel)
''Post Office'' is the first novel written by the German-American author Charles Bukowski, published in 1971. The book is an autobiographical memoir of Bukowski's years working at the United States Postal Service. The film rights to the novel were sold in the early 1970s, but a film has not been made thus far. Plot In Los Angeles, California, down-and-out barfly Henry Chinaski becomes a substitute mail carrier; he quits for a while and lives on his winnings at the race track, then becomes a mail clerk. Chinaski drifts from place to place, surviving through booze and women, with his biting sense of humor and a cynical view of the world. Writing and publication An autobiographical account of Bukowski's years working as a carrier and sorter for the United States Postal Service,Kyle Ryan"Post Office by Charles Bukowski,"''The A.V. Club'', August 16, 2011. the novel is "dedicated to nobody". ''Post Office'' introduces Bukowski's autobiographical anti-hero, Henry Chinaski. It covers t ...
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Pulp (novel)
''Pulp'' is the last completed novel by Los Angeles poet and writer Charles Bukowski. It was published in 1994, shortly before Bukowski's death. He began writing it in 1991 and encountered several problems during its creation. He fell ill during the spring of 1993, only three-quarters of the way through ''Pulp''. Plot ''Pulp'' is a pulp fiction novel which acts also as a meta-pulp. ''Pulp'' comments on the obsessions of the pulp fiction genre, making fun of itself as stereotypical of the genre in the grimiest form. Bukowski dedicates the story to "bad writing", as Bukowski did not plan his mystery novel well and frequently wrote Nicky Belane into holes from which he could not escape. Bukowski wrote some of his most violent, cynical, sarcastic, and shocking work during the final months of his life. Many critics have agreed this novel exemplifies Bukowski showing an acceptance of his own pending mortality. A convoluted detective story about a hard-boiled private eye who solves hi ...
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Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles in films like ''Body Heat'' (1981) and ''Diner'' (1982), before portraying leading roles in films like The Motorcycle Boy in ''Rumble Fish'' (1983), Charlie Moran in ''The Pope of Greenwich Village'' (1984), Captain Stanley White in '' Year of the Dragon'' and John Gray in ''9½ Weeks'' (1986). He received critical praise for his work in the Charles Bukowski biopic '' Barfly'' and the horror mystery ''Angel Heart'' (both 1987). In 1991, following a string of critical and commercial failures, Rourke—who trained as a boxer in his early years—left acting and became a professional boxer for a time. After retiring from boxing in 1994, Rourke returned to acting and had supporting roles in several films such as '' The Rainmaker'' (1997), '' Bu ...
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Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination. Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a teen idol by starring in the films ''My Bodyguard'' (1980), ''Little Darlings'' (1980), three of five S. E. Hinton book adaptations ''Tex'' (1982), ''Rumble Fish'' (1983) and '' The Outsiders'' (1983) as well as ''The Flamingo Kid'' (1984). From the late 1980s onward, Dillon achieved further success, starring in ''Drugstore Cowboy'' (1989), ''Singles'' (1992), ''The Saint of Fort Washington'' (1993), ''To Die For'' (1995), '' Beautiful Girls'' (1996), '' In & Out'' (1997), ''There's Something About Mary'' (1998), and '' Wild Things'' (1998). In a 1991 article, movie critic Roger Ebert referred to him as the best actor within his age group, along with Sean Penn. In the 2000s, he made his directing debut with '' City of Ghosts'' (2002) and we ...
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