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A masterpiece of ennui, isolationism and vulgarity.

Charles Bukowski’s 1982 semi-autobiographical coming of age story made me laugh, cringe and contemplate humanity � sometimes all on the same page.

Using as a vehicle his pseudonym and literary alter-ego Henry Chinaski, we follow the early years of a boy and young man who is outcast from society. Born in Germany after the first world war, he moves with his family to Los Angeles. The Chinaski’s are poverty stricken as are many during the depression years and young Hank grows up tough due in large part to his social ostracization and violent father.

What Bukowski has done is to reveal in Hank a universal dissatisfaction with the world order, an affirmative rejection of society and a determinism to escape what he sees as a hostile, meaningless culture.

Yet Bukowski does not so much embrace nihilism as just a robust resistance to a world that does not want him. He finds escape in music, literature, alcohol and casual violence. Though he longs for seedy sexual adventures, Bukowski describes Hank’s deep-seated ideas about right and wrong and even a fundamental propriety.

Not for everyone, but for those who are not easily offended, a hidden gem.