Joyce found a job with the county, the county Police Department, of all things. I was living with a cop! But at least it was during the day, which gave me a little rest from those fondl...

I had boils the size of tomatoes all over me they stuck a drill into me down at the county hospital, and

naked in that bright light the four horse falls and throws a 112-pound boy into the hooves

But there were some good moments. My sometime friend from the neighborhood, Gene, who was a year older than I, had a buddy, Harry Gibson, who had had one professional fight (he’d lost)....

I went with two ladies down to Venice to look for antique furniture. I parked in back of the store and went in with them.

she’s young, she said, but look at me, I have pretty ankl… and look at my wrists, I have pret… wrists my god,

the old L.A. Public Library burn… down that library downtown and with it went large part of my

Beowulf may have killed Grendel a… Grendel’s mother but he couldn’t kill this one:

he walks up to my Volks after I have parked and rocks it back and forth grinning around his

drinking German beer and trying to come up with the immortal poem at 5 p.m. in the afternoon. but, ah, I’ve told the

I looked for a job all summer and couldn’t find one. Jimmy Hatcher caught on at an aircraft plant. Hitler was acting up in Europe and creating jobs for the unemployed. I had been with J...

There was death in that place on the hill. I knew it the first day I walked out the screen door and into the backyard. A zing– ing binging buzzing whining sound came right at me: 10,000...

The funeral was to be at 10:30 a.m. but it was already hot. I had on a cheap black suit, bought and fitted in a rush. It was my first new suit in years. I had located the son. We drove ...

They had me in the counselor’s office in one of the back rooms of the second floor. “Let me see how you look, Chinaski.” He looked at me. “All right, Mr. Chinaski, we’d like to know whe...