∎ Download Gratis Ham on Rye A Novel Charles Bukowski 9780061177583 Books

Ham on Rye A Novel Charles Bukowski 9780061177583 Books

Download As PDF : Ham on Rye A Novel Charles Bukowski 9780061177583 Books

Ham on Rye A Novel Charles Bukowski 9780061177583 Books

Charles Bukowski's fourth novel, Ham on Rye, is the semi-autobiographical story of the early years of his alter ego Henry Chinaski. It is a finely written and honest account of the painful childhood of a boy marked out from his peers. Regularly beaten by his father, Chinaski is shown growing through his difficult and violent adolescence (struck with the worst case of acne his doctors have ever seen) through to the first jobs he can't and won't hold down. In this moving story of growing up Bukowski disciplines his muscular, concentrated writing and creates a novel that distils his poetry into the finest full-length piece of prose that he ever wrote. Bukowski is often good but in Ham on Rye he's great.

Sadly, best known as the alcoholic inspiration for the film Barfly (an experience he reflected on in his book Hollywood), it is as a poet, rather than a drunk, that Bukowski should be best remembered. His bitter, caustic, direct, humane, damaged poetry reflects a life dominated by poverty and booze. His poetry stretches over many, many volumes but Bukowski also wrote great novels: all of them have many faults but the first four books he wrote shine for similar reasons. Post Office and Factotum both dissect, quite brilliantly, the life of an angry, poor man forced to do mindless jobs, pushed around and considered mindless by the fools who force him to do them. Women, as Roddy Doyle points out in his short introduction, continues the themes but focuses on the numerous women who share his hero's bed and bottle.
I would call Chinaski a misanthrope, were it not for his abiding love – nay, obsession- with the female form. (let’s just say l had no idea how gross teenage males could be). Oh, and of course, alcohol. He notably remarks, after experiencing intoxication for the first time: “this is going to help me for a long, long time”.

Unfortunately, the honeymoon is short-lived, and his relationship with alcohol leads to progressively seedier and more violent behavior.
There’s not really much of a “plot” in Ham on Rye: it tells the story of the first 20 years of Chinaski’s life; and then it ends. And that was OK with me.


Tags : Ham on Rye: A Novel [Charles Bukowski] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 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,Charles Bukowski,Ham on Rye: A Novel,Ecco,006117758X,Literary,Alcoholics,Authors,Autobiographical fiction,Los Angeles (Calif.),Teenage boys,BUKOWSKI, CHARLES, 1920-1994,Classic fiction (pre c 1945),Classics,FICTION Classics,FICTION Coming of Age,FICTION Literary,FICTION Urban,Fiction,Fiction-Literary,GENERAL,General Adult,Literature - Classics Criticism,United States,bukowski fiction; bukowski novel; coming of age novel; coming of age stories; bukowski book; alienation; coming of age fiction

Ham on Rye A Novel Charles Bukowski 9780061177583 Books Reviews

"The life of the sane, average man was dull, worse than death."

This was my second foray into the works of Bukowski, and I will continue. This book reminded me of what "Catcher in the Rye" should have been. Henry Chinanski is the very embodiment of the disenfranchised youth. Although this story takes place in between the 1920's and 40's, the attitude easily translates in today's "modern" world. It's not hard to see the similarities of then and now, only a few details are somewhat different.

A very good read that, as another review stated, will leave you weary or angry. This is the novel about everything that is really going on when we say "nothing".
The events of this book precede Post Office and detail Bukowski's childhood. This is raw and emotional, bleak and hard to take at times but Bukowski is so open and honest you can't tear your eyes off of him. This was reality fiction before reality TV. An ugly teenager without social skills, a father who seems to despise him and a mother almost as pitiful as the author. Bukowski still manages to evoke the human experience I think most of us can find some parallels with or own experiences of teenage angst and self loathing his experiences with sex and alcohol, though Bukowski takes this to nihilistic and levels of disgust that would make most of us blanch. This is funny and raucous and well worth a read.
Ham on Rye is a brilliant little novel about adolescence. While this story has been told a thousand times before, the narrative voice of our acne'd outsider protagonist is incredibly refreshing. When one considers that many of the other narratives of the era tend to be self-affirming urban adventure stories that take themselves too seriously, Bukowski's narrative shows us a semi-autobiographical, self-deprecating, cynical life that’s rife with alcohol, disappointment, and fistfights.

Bukowski's boozy world is one where the outsider is the king protagonist of his own destiny, and it is one that is probably shared with a great deal of young men in their American upbringing. His dysfunctional family echoed my own experiences (even though I didn't necessarily have physical punishment, the emotional aspect was spot on). His feelings on his own existence as an animal (and of course, I didn't have the acne problems, but I have myriad others that gave me outsider social status) were real. His experiences with young women, school, and trying to make it against all odds professionally and educationally were very familiar to me.
While Bukowski may be offensive to most readers, the plain fact of the matter is that his views on life and adolescent sexuality are the exact same ones I had in my youth. What is the most memorable is the manner in which he tells the story. He doesn't self-edit. He doesn't leave anything out. He tells us everything about his experiences as they happen. This isn't entirely something that should be described as offensive, but real. A real experience. What it is really like. And while many of us want to find some parochial editorializing when we read, the best part about Bukowski is that that is simply not in his novels.

I first read his work when I was eighteen or nineteen years old. Now that I am thirty-five, picking up HOR again has left me with a reading experience that was much different since I have had a great deal more life experience and perspective. Looking at this book today, I have found a hilarious, beautiful, tragic, and exciting narrative about living as an outsider in America. I absolutely loved it – more than I did the first time – and look forward to revisiting a couple more (Post Office and Women) in the coming year.
Charles Bukowski's fourth novel, Ham on Rye, is the semi-autobiographical story of the early years of his alter ego Henry Chinaski. It is a finely written and honest account of the painful childhood of a boy marked out from his peers. Regularly beaten by his father, Chinaski is shown growing through his difficult and violent adolescence (struck with the worst case of acne his doctors have ever seen) through to the first jobs he can't and won't hold down. In this moving story of growing up Bukowski disciplines his muscular, concentrated writing and creates a novel that distils his poetry into the finest full-length piece of prose that he ever wrote. Bukowski is often good but in Ham on Rye he's great.

Sadly, best known as the alcoholic inspiration for the film Barfly (an experience he reflected on in his book Hollywood), it is as a poet, rather than a drunk, that Bukowski should be best remembered. His bitter, caustic, direct, humane, damaged poetry reflects a life dominated by poverty and booze. His poetry stretches over many, many volumes but Bukowski also wrote great novels all of them have many faults but the first four books he wrote shine for similar reasons. Post Office and Factotum both dissect, quite brilliantly, the life of an angry, poor man forced to do mindless jobs, pushed around and considered mindless by the fools who force him to do them. Women, as Roddy Doyle points out in his short introduction, continues the themes but focuses on the numerous women who share his hero's bed and bottle.
I would call Chinaski a misanthrope, were it not for his abiding love – nay, obsession- with the female form. (let’s just say l had no idea how gross teenage males could be). Oh, and of course, alcohol. He notably remarks, after experiencing intoxication for the first time “this is going to help me for a long, long time”.

Unfortunately, the honeymoon is short-lived, and his relationship with alcohol leads to progressively seedier and more violent behavior.
There’s not really much of a “plot” in Ham on Rye it tells the story of the first 20 years of Chinaski’s life; and then it ends. And that was OK with me.