M.L.'s review
Ham on Rye: A Novel
by Charles Bukowski
M.L.'s review
Ham on Rye: A Novel by Charles Bukowski
M.L.'s review
rating:
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 every three pages and deaths every five. Sex comes both tender and in rutting waves, but it comes someway or other as often as death. But it is not cheap. Bukowski is profoundly non-pornographic in his violence and non-victimizing in his sex.
Such a take is rare and refreshing, if a bit dark. Ham on Rye is quasi-autobiographical Bukowski starting in kindergarten and going ending up in college, in the twixtWar, California years.k The writing is crisp and the story is vivid, but I recomm...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 every three pages and deaths every five. Sex comes both tender and in rutting waves, but it comes someway or other as often as death. But it is not cheap. Bukowski is profoundly non-pornographic in his violence and non-victimizing in his sex.
Such a take is rare and refreshing, if a bit dark. Ham on Rye is quasi-autobiographical Bukowski starting in kindergarten and going ending up in college, in the twixtWar, California years.k The writing is crisp and the story is vivid, but I recomm...more
