Ham on Rye - Softcover

Charles Bukowski

Softcover

ISBN 10: 085786176X ISBN 13: 9780857861764

Publisher: Canongate Books, 2011

Synopsis

Legendary barfly Charles Bukowski's fourth novel, first published in 1982, is probably the most autobiographical and moving of all his books, dealing in particular with his difficult relationship with his father and his early childhood in LA. Ham on Rye follows the path of Bukowski's alter-ego Henry Chinaski through the high school years of acne and rejection and into the beginning of a long and successful career in alcoholism. The novel begins against the backdrop of an America devastated by the Depression and takes the Chinaski legend up to the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Arguably Bukowski's finest novel.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Bukowski was born in Germany in 1920 to an American soldier father and a German mother and brought to the United States at the age of three. He grew up in Los Angeles and lived there for the majority of his life. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books, including poetry and many novels. He died in 1994.

Review

In an age of conformity, Bukowski wrote about the people nobody wanted to be: the ugly, the selfish, the lonely, the mad * * Observer * * Sometimes funny and always sad, Ham on Rye is written in an admirably hard, bare, vivid style * * Times Literary Supplement * * Both powerful and, where appropriate, extremely funny * * Sunday Telegraph * * A scorching account of a childhood, adolescence, a life of ugliness, pain, escape, alcohol, loneliness. Often it is's funny - often it's disturbing - Ham on Rye is a powerful book -- Roddy Doyle

Edition details

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 085786176X
• ISBN 13: 9780857861764
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368