Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3937 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
With his fourth novel, legendary barfly Charles Bukowski follows the path of his alter ego Henry Chinaski through the high school years of acne and rejection, drinking his way through the Depression, and ends at the start of World War 2.

From the Publisher
Ham on Rye recounts both the comical and tragic events of Bukowski's youth (through the character Henry Chinaski), and provides a nostalgic view of a more innocent time and of an inner-city Los Angeles that has long since vanished.

Customer Reviews

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.