Women

Women is a novel by the American writer Charles Bukowski, published in 1978. It is one of the books he wrote about Henry Chinaski, a character drawn from his own life.

Unlike the earlier Chinaski novels, this one deals with him in later middle age, when he has publishers, readings and enough of a reputation to spend his time drinking with whoever is around. It is built out of the women he meets in that period and the relationships that follow. One of the first of them, a sculptor called Lydia Vance, recurs through phone calls and through his thoughts, and their last meeting in person ends with her breaking into his house, destroying his paintings and his books, and being arrested shortly afterwards.

Chinaski narrates the whole book and the novel moves from one relationship to the next, carrying the drinking and the aftermath with it. His decision not to press charges against Lydia, because she was fighting for custody of her children, is one of the exchanges the book turns on, and it is the kind of episode that makes up most of it rather than any story about his writing.