Ten Jack-offs Summary

Sanchez is a genius who builds a two-story shack, installs plumbing, and taps electrical and telephone wires. He talks little, paints, writes concisely with no care for fame, occasionally reads poetry at some university, and makes love with sexy, beautiful Kaakaa (derived from Kafka). They take Bukowski in when he feels like after eleven years on the job he is cracking. Sanchez shows him a close-up photograph of his penis at the moment of ejaculation and brags about it taking ten sessions to capture it perfectly. After sleeping in their bed that night, Bukowski finds Sanchez and Kaakaa asleep in each other's arms on a narrow sofa and leaves feeling depressed at his own life.

Ten Jack-offs Analysis

This story is the first in which Bukowski examines his condition as a professional writer. Suffering writer's block, he visits his poet friend...