Content Warning: The novel contains depictions of sexual abuse, domestic abuse, misogyny, sexual harassment, mental illness, bestiality, alcohol addiction, animal cruelty, overt and damaging racism, child abuse, bullying, severe violence, death by suicide, and anti-gay bias. This guide sometimes quotes offensive or problematic language related to these topics. Nazi supporters and attitudes make appearances in the work. The novel also includes negative comments about those with disabilities.

Henry Chinaski Junior is the thinly-veiled pseudonym used by the novel’s author, Charles Bukowski. Henry narrates his first memory, when he sits beneath a table watching the adults in Germany in 1922. His childhood memories include Christmas trees, eating, and “two large people fighting” (9). His mother, Katherine, and his father, Henry, fight frequently, often in their native German and often with Henry’s grandmother, Emily. Even after the family moved to California, Emily visited regularly and continues to do so. His grandfather, Leonard, has an alcohol addiction and is a former German Army officer who moved the family to America and then grew estranged from the family. During one visit, Leonard gifts Henry Junior his war medal and his gold pocket watch.