Perspective

Bukowski's perspective throughout the novel changes from first person to third person several times. In his first person stories, Bukowski often tells of his own personal experiences mixed with some level of fantasy. These experiences tend to show the darker side of Bukowski's personality. Bukowski's background as an abused child, and also as a poor transient lend truth to these first person accounts, creating stories that are as believable as they are fantastic. On occasion, however, Bukowski will write in the third person, indicating someone other than himself is the main participant. Even in these stories, however, readers are given a sense that the third person perspective is simply a cover for more humiliating periods of Bukowski's own life.

This change in perspective helps to define Bukowski as a character, in that some stories, while certainly off the wall and deviant, are still told from a first person...