I recently watched a documentary about Charles Bukowski. Bukowski is a respected writer. He was also known for being an asshole and a misogynist. The documentary did not contradict these ideas, but it did humanize him a bit for me. It also made me want to read some of his work.

I checked out Absence of the Hero and Post Office from the library. Absence of the Hero is a collection of stories, essays, and quite a few of his “Notes of a Dirty Old Man” columns. I found this book incredibly well-written and entertaining. Bukowski writes mostly about his life, and in this regard, I can relate to him.

Post Office is a work of fiction, but it parallels Bukowski’s own life. It is fairly safe to assume much of what happened in this book also happened to Bukowski. For me, this makes the scene where the protagonist rapes a woman somewhat problematic. Did Bukowski actually rape a woman when he was working as a postal carrier? It is not terribly hard to imagine that being true, given his reputation. Does that make his writing any less good? Certainly not.

But as a woman, this passage upset me. He rapes a woman on his postal route, and he has no concern that she will accuse him. It is only later when he tries to fight a man that he worries his boss might get a phone call. He does not fear the woman he assaulted, but he is concerned about retaliation from the man he never actually touched. The woman has been shamed into silence, and it is only men who have a voice. You certainly don’t need to read Post Office to hear these ideas iterated. We already know that many women feel shame when they are sexually assaulted. This is what keeps them silent. According to the RAINN website, 54 percent of rapes/sexual assaults go unreported.

Bukowski is not the only man who has written about rape. But given that Bukowski may actually have committed rape, this gives the passage much more weight. The woman is assaulted and silenced both on and off the page. So I guess my question is: do I need to allow this man to have a voice in my life? What does that say about me as a woman? What does that say about me as a writer that is a woman?