Who is Henry from Notes of a Dirty Old Man and what is their importance?

Henry is the second most common character in the book. Henry is clearly the alter ego of Bukowski throughout the stories. Henry is first seen in Story 16, as the friend of a tailor who has gone insane, and in this story he has sex with a telephone. In section 19, Henry is a man who wakes to find himself gold with polka dots, and in response, goes insane and begins randomly killing people.