Ham on Rye
by Charles Bukowski
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2996)
Read in May, 2008
This is only the second novel I have read by Bukowski. I'm more a fan of his poetry. His poems are like his novels but condensed onto one page so they seem to carry more weight, more truth. His novels are like his poems but spread out over hundreds of pages so they seem a bit repetitive and watered down. The first half of the book was really good, recalling his childhood and abusive family life. The second half of the novel lost momentum as he describes his life after high school which fore...more
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Read in June, 2008
It took about six years and three recommendations to finally read Bukowski, and I wouldn't say I'm disappointed. In fact, I'm pretty damn appointed. Despite the main character's despicable, misanthropic (he explicitly dismisses this label), misogynistic nature, you really root for him. His father is portrayed as an even more horrid person, which explains a lot of it, but Bukowski weaves little glimpses of serious vulnerability into Hank, which glimpses are only heightened by contrast with his ge...more
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Read in March, 2008
The thing I like about Bukowski is that he doesn't use violence to enforce his moral code. Violence happens, often -- but neither as reward or punishment. The hero loses as many fights as he wins, or more. Good deeds go both unpunished and everpunished because punishment is simply the wrong dimension on which to weigh a good deed. Or an evil one.
Same with sex. It just is - natural and mechanical but not moral or immoral. It just is.
Don't get me wrong, Bukowski's writing has fights ...more
Same with sex. It just is - natural and mechanical but not moral or immoral. It just is.
Don't get me wrong, Bukowski's writing has fights ...more
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Charles Bukowski knows how to say a thing as simply, directly, and poetically as possible. His words are a punch in the gut, a kick in the balls, and his conversation is with the world. And he’s easy enough to read on the toilet, too.
Ham on Rye is one of my favorite Bukowski works. It’s the dark, brutal, strange, sometimes hilarious, growing up and coming of age story of Bukowski’s most famous autobiographical character Hank Chinaski, the anti-hero to kick all other anti-heroes’ as...more
Ham on Rye is one of my favorite Bukowski works. It’s the dark, brutal, strange, sometimes hilarious, growing up and coming of age story of Bukowski’s most famous autobiographical character Hank Chinaski, the anti-hero to kick all other anti-heroes’ as...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2008
After reading "Women" I knew that I had to have more Bukowski. I can relate in so many ways. In this book I related to being a strong kid but being an outsider at the same time. I also related similarily to the acne problems. I didn't have it as bad but still it affected my childhood.
Bukowski writes it as it is. There is no holding back. He blatantly lets you know how he felt about pussy, about alcohol about pain and growing up. It is somewhat of a history lesson as ...more
Bukowski writes it as it is. There is no holding back. He blatantly lets you know how he felt about pussy, about alcohol about pain and growing up. It is somewhat of a history lesson as ...more
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Read in September, 1990
Charles Bukowski is one of my favorite writers. This is one of his best books. It follows him from the age of 5 to his early teens. Heartbreaking and hilarious, this book was written at the perfect time by the man himself--if he had been younger it wouldn't have had the wisdom that it contains---this is probably Bukowski at his finest; all of the foundations for his later life and work are laid here: His father's thuggery, his mother's complacency, the cruelty of his classmates and his rejection...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Angry Teenagers
I understand why angry teenage boys loved Bukowski and why they continue to have such a fondness for him in their adult lives. Really, I do. But I take a couple of issues with this book. First, unlike MY Angry Youth Bible, Catcher in the Rye, it never really goes anywhere. I understand that we are supposed to view Henry Chinaski (the thinly veiled counterpart to the author) as a lost soul who doesn't have any plans himself, but Holden was a lost soul too, and I didn't have to keep flipping throu...more
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Read in November, 2007
Charles Bukowski’s semi (or mostly) autobiographical tale spans from his main character Henry Chinaski’s first remembrance as a child through his college years. As a self-imposed social outcast, Chinaski realizes early in life that the lower class will always be as such, and any attempt to climb the social and economic strata can only lead, at best, to a lifetime of servitude to society’s privileged. Henry rejects the box that he sees society forcing him into (a wife, kids, a mortgage, and...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone Who Feels Disaffect
For anyone who feels disconnected or disaffected “Ham on Rye” is a great first person coming of age story. The book revolves around Henry Chinaski, Charles Bukowski’s alterego, as he goes through childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, in LA through the Great Depression and World War II. The book ends around 19-20, after Henry graduates High School works a dead-end job and dropping out of community college.
The book is autobiographical material funneled through a fictional char...more
The book is autobiographical material funneled through a fictional char...more
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Read in April, 2008
It was a quick read, a first hand account of an abused child growing up during the depression. I can maybe see the appeal for teenaged boys: it had the same type of humor as the movie "Superbad," with more crudeness and violence added in. However, it was little too adolescent and immature for my taste. The first half was basically potty humor interspersed with moments of Henry either getting into fights or being abused by his dad. The second half described Henry's life of self-loa...more
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recommends it for:
the morbidly curious, anyone who kind of likes Jack Kerouac
I read this book years ago, but most of it still sticks with me. I have a hard time giving it more than three stars because Charles Bukowski is such an asshole. It is also true though that he is an amazing writer. All of Bukowski's work is highly autobiographical (part of being a huge jerk is naricism) and this is his best. It deals with his horribly abusive childhood and adolescence is a way that is honest while pushing away all sympathy, a combination that creates a false intimacy. Reading Ham...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
truth seekers
It is true that Ham on Rye lacks a serious plot. It is also true that Mr. Bukowski writes in a crude, whiskey soaked style. However, the novel makes up for its deficiencies with a well-honed theme on the bullshit realities of middle-class existence and the ugly truth of how our society deals with those who reject that path. Such a novel should necessarily cause the reader to taste a tinge of bile in his or her throat. If you don't finish the book weary and angry, then you missed the point. ...more
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Read in September, 2008
I re-read a few novels by him in the last few weeks. The writing here feels much richer than the rest of the novels, which I found to be entertaining but frustrating. His interactions with others sometimes come off as opportunities for him to say something clever, or to prove something about the narrator. This book feels much more honest, and it proves he is capable of communicating a fuller world.
It is probably more that I don't agree with his philosophies on writing. I think this part a...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Tiffoknee the 3rd by:
Linky Dinkrecommends it for: not sure
I read this book on the recommendation of my friend Lincoln. Lincoln could not stop going on and on about how fantastic Bukowski is so I thought I'd give him a go. Of course, Lincoln is also a 23 year-old wet behind the years youngster. Nevertheless, I take book recommendations where I can find them.
Now, I like a good vagina joke as much as the next person, but otherwise, this book didn't leave me very curious or fulfilled. A little too macho for my tastes and I rarely, if ever, reached...more
Now, I like a good vagina joke as much as the next person, but otherwise, this book didn't leave me very curious or fulfilled. A little too macho for my tastes and I rarely, if ever, reached...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
everyone
this is my favorite bukowski novel and also one of my favorite novels EVER.
it takes a certain type to appreciate the writing style and humor of c. bukowski. i'm typically anti-convention in general, so it comes as no surprise that i idolize this man.
i wrote a research paper in college about why bukowski's poetry is good. poetry is so hard for me to latch on to because as frilly as writing can be, frilly writing doesn't interest me enough to try and deduce some poetic code. the types of ...more
it takes a certain type to appreciate the writing style and humor of c. bukowski. i'm typically anti-convention in general, so it comes as no surprise that i idolize this man.
i wrote a research paper in college about why bukowski's poetry is good. poetry is so hard for me to latch on to because as frilly as writing can be, frilly writing doesn't interest me enough to try and deduce some poetic code. the types of ...more
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Reading about the dark moments of anyone's childhood can be really tough and bring up all the wrong memories. Memories you don't want to forget, though. Some of the stuff about his father was brutal enough that I couldn't read it in one sitting and had to take breaks. But when you're a kid and fucked up stuff is happening all around you, you do your own ridiculous stuff to make up for it, and Bukowski's childhood stories had me laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face at several po...more
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Read in May, 2008
Going into Ham on Rye I was very skeptical, having not liked Women, my only other Bukowski read. After the first fifty pages, I was completely rethinking my feelings about the drunk, vulgar woman obsessed Bukowski.
Ham on Rye gave me reasons as to why He was so F***ed up. Understanding that Bukowski's work is FICTION based on his life, I still felt sorry for the guy. Even if it is all fiction, it must be hard walking around with a mind that can come up with some of those ideas. One examp...more
Ham on Rye gave me reasons as to why He was so F***ed up. Understanding that Bukowski's work is FICTION based on his life, I still felt sorry for the guy. Even if it is all fiction, it must be hard walking around with a mind that can come up with some of those ideas. One examp...more
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I've always preferred Bukowski's prose to his poetry, even though both are based in hard language and urban imagery, because he needs to get himself on a roll to fully extrapolate his message, and god it's a bleak one in Ham on Rye. Focusing largely on his formative years in depression-era L,A., Hank deals with a lot of abuse at the hands of bullies in his poor neighborhood and the grotesque boils that crippled him emotionally long after he graduated High School and left City College. For a lon...more
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This book takes the character I/you met in Post Office and gives the story of his youth. (Which is in some way a story of Bukowski's youth) It's very strange, but very intriguing. The things that this guy talks about and the pace that he writes in is just insane! He takes instances from books and elaborates on them further in other books. Since it's the story of one character's plight, you end up hearing about people more than once in many cases and you get to find out more about them. It's like...more
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In classic Bukowski fashion, this book works as a book of fiction but is painfully autobiographical. It casts shadows along the same archetypes as This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolffe, but there is a much less forgiving tone in the writings, much less sentimental feel which could come from the distancing of Bukowski through the fictionalization. This book is humorous, dark, and relentless. The main character is mean, ugly, and misogynistic. But still, in all that, there is a pull towards...more
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