Chapters 1-7 Summary

Henry Chinaski arrives depressed in New Orleans with a cardboard suitcase, hoping for luck in a new town. He takes a room across from the Gangplank Café and eats once a day in a dirty café. Henry turns down a job shucking clams, and then applies for a no-experience-necessary, work-up delivery job, saying he has not shaved in order to win a bet that he can land a job looking this way. Alone in his room, Henry contemplates shooting himself, but learns he has the job. Hearing that a veteran truck driver receives a $2 raise, Henry demands the same, is turned down, and quits his $17 a week job, only to show up Monday, hung over and cleanshaven, at a newspaper for a $12 a week job. Henry fetches zinc engravings for ads.

Fired for being away too often drinking, he collects five...