Chapters 1 through 6 Summary

Henry Chinaski, the narrator and protagonist of the novel, is fifty years old. He has been divorced once, has a six-year-old daughter with whom he has virtually no contact, and is an alcoholic. Henry has not had sex for four years and although he looks at women and masturbates, he holds out without hope of a successful sexual engagement. Henry is an ex-postal clerk and currently a somewhat successful writer who enjoys a limited circulation of novels and poetry. His success pays the rent but he is definitely not a literary superstar although his notoriety is on the rise.

After the prologue of the novel, Henry meets Lydia Vance, a thirty-year-old mother of two. They meet at Henry's first poetry reading. Henry is immediately sexually attracted to Lydia, although Henry is immediately sexually attracted to any woman. Lydia has long brown...