Name: Ham on Rye
Rating: 4.009433962264151 (106 reviews)
ISBN: 9781782116660

Charles Bukowski

The autobiographical coming-of-age modern classic by one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century.

Ham on Rye

In what is widely hailed as the best of his many novels, Charles Bukowski details the long, lonely years of his own hardscrabble youth in the raw voice of alter ego Henry Chinaski. From a harrowingly cheerless childhood in Germany through acne-riddled high school years and his adolescent discoveries of alcohol, women, and the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of D. H. Lawrence, Ham on Rye offers a crude, brutal, and savagely funny portrait of an outcast's coming-of-age during the desperate days of the Great Depression.

A Novel

Greg Talbot

It's hard to think of a more sadsack, self-piting narrator than Bukowski's Henry Chinaski. He is piss-poor emotionally and financially, and his childhood years are a bleak as any portrait i've encountered. The perspective on his father's larger than life anger and cruelty, gave me a profound compassion for him. As the boy grows there are dashes of optimism - a teacher who finds his middle school essay riveting or finding understanding in Russian authors - but the depression cloud never leaves. In many ways the story gets sadder, since these immature perspectives seem to marble. At every culturally significant moment, Bukowski is mopping in his own sorrow. <br /><br />The book's primary strength is the narrator's indifference. Always holding back on exploring an important moment such as a near-death in Russian Roulette, an unfulfilled sexual life, and his general lack of interest outside a narrow worldview. Outside of that, everything feels unimportant to the narrator, and there just isn't a lot to explore here.<br /><br />Ultimately, it's barely a book I can recommend. Simplicity without insight is something best left for 7th grade. There are plenty of beat authors, or authors with a similar narraitve style, Hemingway in particular, that are more interesting. For all the accolades, "Ham on Rye" is a consistently immature and unremarkable novel.

M. Marques

Erik Wallace

I hadn't read any of Bukowski's work before reading Ham on Rye. I was blown away at how raw and unapologetic his writing is. This book centers on the life of Henry Chinaski, a German immigrant growing up in LA during the depression. From what little I know about the author there are parallels between he and Chinaski and I suspect many of Henry's experiences are autobiographical. I wouldn't recommend this book to easily offended readers, the language, situations and lack of political correctness could be too much. A good book overall but very depressing and honest.

'The largely autobiographical Ham On Rye is also suprisingly reflective, humane, tremendously evocative and absorbingly readable.' The Times

High Fidelity

Dobar prikaz odrastanja. Bukovski slikovito opisuje oca i društvo sa kojim se susretao u odrastanju,tačnije školovanju.Takodje slikovito opisuje koliko je to isto društvo i mrzeo.

Shelby Doherty

Likes:
- Very easy to read. Clear, direct language is used throughout. always felt like you could read one more chapter
- Liked the very end where the little boy beats him up in the game. Henry gets some sort of payback even if it is tiny.


Dislikes:
- Could not get into this. Ultimately do not think that this story was written for me as an audience.
- Essentially nothing happens in this story, aside from fighting, family abuse, and fantasizing about girls. I am okay with books that have no real plot but this one also does not have good character development.
- Especially disliked the period of "young Henry". He and his peers were portrayed as too knowledgeable and adult in my opinion. And to one of the other reviewers, no the little girl showing him her panties was neither funny nor cute.
- On top of actively not liking the main character of this book, I feel that the book did not add anything to my life. I did not feel that it went anywhere, I learned anything, nor did I get entertainment out of this book, just frustration and anger at the protagonist/author.
- My favorite part of the story is when it took a deep dive into his acne problem. How exciting! /s

Rohit Gupta

Nicely Done. My second bukowski. His writing seems so natural and from the heart. No wonder the book is named ham on rye and there is no catcher here.

Louise 

Laura

Charles Bukowski is one of my favorite poets, with both Nirvana and The Crunch (the one from Love Is A Dog From Hell) being two of my favorite poems ever. Yet I have never read one of his novels. I figured his books would be raunchy as all hell, and, needless to say, I'm not a raunchy kind of person. And yet, I found myself strangely enjoying Ham on Rye. There's something about it that drew me in, that same grittiness that was what originally drew me to Bukowski's work. This is not the kind of book one should read if he wants something happy. This is the kind of book for someone who wants to read about a miserable, bitter man who has lost all faith in humanity. Which is a kind of character I've been able to relate with lately. Without getting into specifics, 2017 has been a particularly bad year for me, and this is the kind of book I assume one's enjoyment of it will depend on how much one can get behind the main character. I didn't agree with him on everything, but with enough that I ended up really liking this book. Though I admit, some of it may have to do with my soft spot for the Buk.

Read more like this review on my blog, http://www.bookwormbasics.blogspot.com

Ham on Rye

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