It began as a mistake.

Henry Chinaski opens the novel by recalling how he took a temporary postal job at Christmas after hearing that nearly anyone could get hired. At first he thinks the work easy and enjoys a sexual encounter on his route. The next section brings regular substitute work and a punishing supervisor, undercutting his initial enthusiasm.

Looking back, the narrator calls the seemingly casual decision that started his postal employment an error.

This is a novel’s opening, spoken by Henry Chinaski, not a free-standing autobiographical confession or a general rule that every beginning is a mistake.

Change

• “We have discovered happiness,” say the last men, and blink. Friedrich Nietzsche
• Even in toothache there is enjoyment. Fyodor Dostoevsky
• To be too conscious is an illness — a real thorough-going illness. Fyodor Dostoevsky
• A good addiction takes the guesswork out of death. Chuck Palahniuk
• That old saying, how you always kill the one you love, well, look, it works both ways. Chuck Palahniuk

Charles Bukowski, Post Office (1971), Opening sentence; ‘Chapter One’ in the licensed publisher excerpt. Spoken by Henry Chinaski. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/it-began-as-a-mistake/ (24 October 2026).

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