Customer Reviews
Superb. - By: Mr. D. L. Edwards, 12 Sep 2008 
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.
I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.
Definately reccomended!
Is it me, or is it Bukowski? - By: Ian Shine, 08 Aug 2008 
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' & loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realismin 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, & was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, & it'sin no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed mein 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, & thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), & 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 & later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation & attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, & 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 & 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, & while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionshipin 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! - By: Mr. John P. Oreilly, 11 Jun 2008 Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book & 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 - By: Dillinger, 21 Apr 2008 Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothingin terms of conventional 'plot' & so funny & 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.
A Classic - By: Brendan O. Clarke, 22 Mar 2008 Bukowski's novel "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of age novelin that it tells the story of Bukowski's protagonist, Henry Chinaski, from his birth to his young manhood, ending with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Chinaski is based loosely on Bukowski's own life; but "Ham on Rye" & Bukowski's other novels are, after all, works of fiction & should be read as such.
The scene of "Ham on Rye" is Los Angeles during the Great Depression, particularly the lower middle-class homesin which Chinaski grows up, as families struggle to survive & to escape from poverty. Bukowski is at his bestin describing dingy homes, streets, schools, & desperate people.
But "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of-age book told with irony & twists. It seemingly mocks the story of self-discovery & self-awakening common to these distinctively American books, butin the end I think it follows the pattern of a coming-of-age storyin spite of itself. Most American coming-of-age books recount the life of a young person & end when that person comes to some crisis which he meets and, thus, attains a degree of understanding of himself which he carries through life. Bukowski's book tells the story of an unhappy childhood, as Chinaski is subjected to an overbearing father & frequent beatings. In addition, as an early adolescent, Chinaski develops a terrible case of acne which exacerbates his tendency to aloneness as well as his anger & rebeliousness. After graduating from high school, Chinaski loses a menial job, enrollsin a Junior College, & begins to drink heavily. He is well on the way to a life of alcoholism, fighting, wandering, & gambling that is detailedin chronologically later novels of Chinaski's life, such as "Factotum" or "Women".
"I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench & watched the other play & they looked foolish to me."
Yet for all its rawness & Chinaski's sense of failure & purposelessness, the book conveys a sense of promise. The book shows a young Chinaski forming the desire to be a writer, & beginning to work at his craft & respond to his experiencesin a manner that, years later, would resultin "Ham on Rye" &in Bukowski's other works of fiction & poetry. Some of the best momentsin "Ham on Rye" show the adolescent Chinaski sitting alonein the Los Angeles Public Library & ultimately discovering authors, including D.H. Lawrence, John Fante, & Sinclair Lewis, who speak to him. As had many before him, Chinaski learns that projecting oneself into artistic creation offers a form of release from the difficulties of everyday life. Chinaski writes: "Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them & let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you."
Similarly while suffering from his acute acne, Chinaski develops a character a WW I pilot named Baron Von Himmlen, & writes stories of his imagined adventures. Chinaski writes: "it made me feel good to write about the Baron. A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be". (p. 168)
"Ham & Rye" is the story of how a young man found himselfin adulthood leading a life of alcoholism, poverty, & loneliness, with no ambition & seemingly few prospects. The book is full of adolescent sexual frustration, dysfunctional families, rawness, vulgarity, & failure. It also includes some funny scenes. The story is toldin a sharp, crude, no-nonsense style. But together with all the outward failure & the shocking scenes, we see a young Chinaskiin the process of attaining his dream & gaining victory over himself after all. In spite of the dead-end vicissitudes of his life, Henry Chinaski perseveres & gradually brings his experiences alive & learns to make something worthwhile of his existence. He learns to reflect upon himself & his life & to describe them without cant or mercy. Henry Chinaski becomes a writer.
"Practice, that's all it took. All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance & who didn't."
