Ham on Rye - Bukowski on Growing up and Down
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If it wasn't for the hard drinking of the budding alchoholic, this book should be compulsoary reading for angst ridden teenagers across the world, but then again, I read it when I was 30 and found Ham on Rye to be quite soothing - growing up If it wasn't for the hard drinking of the budding alcoholic central to the story, this book should be compulsory reading for angst ridden teenagers across the world, but then again, they should read it and feel better about life and ask themselves the question - Do you want to end up like a character from a Bukowski novel? I read it when I was 30 and found Ham on Rye to be quite soothing - growing up is tough and Bukowski's 'fictional' account (how much of it is based on his life I don't know) makes terrific fun out of growing up (from boy to man), sex (not getting as much as one should) and yes, drinking, drinking but still not quite drunk enough.
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The Great American Novel
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Ham On Rye is, quite simply, one of the greatest works of fiction I've ever had the pleasure reading. It is sparse, direct, scalpel hard, heart-breaking and utterly inspiring in its rites of passage portrayal of a rightly cynical, dissaffected American youth. Chinaski suffers a great deal, yet never weighs the reader down with his inability to shed his outsider status or state of mind; his ostracisation merely renders the reader complicit in his world-weary resignation, yet never at the expense of a somehow life-affirming overall impression. The darkest moments, here, carry an admirable and undiminishable streak of resigned humour. The demotics of youthful discourse are replicated in a supremely believable way. This is the kind of novel that maybe only Raymond Carver could ever have hoped to parallel. From the American books I've read, it is perhaps the very best, most evocative and affecting, and must rank alongside other great works such as the Bonfire of The Vanities, Rabbit At Rest, Underworld, Breakfast Of Champions, and Portnoys Complaint as a vivid, unflinching and hugely entertaining masterpiece.
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One of his best
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Alongside 'Post Office', 'Women' and 'Factotum' this is one of Bukowski's best novels. If you're new to Uncle Buk then prepare for a warts-and-all account of the authors childhood. Searingly uncompromising in his descriptions of his childhood what emerges is a book full of humour, pathos and honesty.
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Genius
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This is the best thing he ever wrote, and when you consider the number of novels, short stories and poems he produced (and the sheer quality of most of them) that's some compliment. He gets a little repetitive after a few books, but this and the volume of poetry "The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills" are essential acquisitions.
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Bukowski's ode to 'Wait Until Spring Bandini'
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While living on skid row in LA, Bukowski visited the County Library. He envisioned his books right there on the shelf, in the 'Bs'. There weren't many writers of note there. 'Hell', he thought, 'There are barely any writers in the B's, or ANYWHERE, for that matter! But there was John Fante. And two of Fante's books (if you like Bukowski, read them), including Wait Until Spring Bandini, cut right into his psyche. They penetrated deep, touching every atom of his being. So to Ham on Rye. It is Bukowski's ode to the seminal Fante classic. Sure, it tells of Bukowski's alter-ego again, Henry Chinaski, as he grows up. He's a tough kid. He does questionable things. An out and out loser, with loser parents. His parental units want him to aspire to great things. This makes the young writer puke! Let's cut to the nut. In this book, you'll find Bukowski's trademark pounding language, sparse grammar, and choice characters all to tell his unique stories enagagingly. There's the worst acne in the world, and the desperate need for sex (yet the nervous shying away from the oppporuntity of it). There's the hard drinking, pure rebellion and lashing out against a bleached world. There's the skid row lifestyle and the revulsion with American society. If the young character met Adrian Mole, Chinaski would laugh at his preoccuption with appearance, drink him under the table, then grab a handful of Pandora's ass. The writing, the story, the character not only stomps on Sue Townsend's much-lauded character, it mashes much of today's so-called 'writing' in a long flash of engaging brilliance. If you enjoy real writing, or are simply a Bukowski fan: Buy it!
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