Ham On Rye
- 2 Jul 2026
- 9781837264025
- £9.99
- 368 pp
- 129×198mm
- 20 Nov 2008
- 9781847673664
- £7.99
- 336 pp
In a few words
Bukowski’s take on the bildungsroman, an anti-coming-of-age story and his finest novel
In a few words
The cult classic autobiographical coming-of-age modern classic by one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century
He brought everyone down to earth, even the angels
Leonard Cohen
In an age of conformity, Bukowski wrote about the people nobody wanted to be: the ugly, the selfish, the lonely, the mad
The largely autobiographical ham on rye is also suprisingly reflective, humane, tremendously evocative and absorbingly readable.
Very funny, very sad, and despite its self-congratulatory tone, honest in most of the right places. In many ways, Bukowski may have been the perfect writer to describe post-war southern California - a land of wide, flat spaces with nothing worth seeing, so you might as well vanish into yourself. In an age of conformity, Bukowski wrote about the people nobody wanted to be: the ugly, the selfish, the lonely, the mad.
More about
the book
RAW ~ REBELLIOUS ~ VULGAR
Bukowski’s take on the bildungsroman, an anti-coming-of-age story and his finest novel.
Lifelong misfit Henry Chinaski grows up downtrodden, stumbling through a world he has only ever known as hostile. Fights, failed romances and humiliations abound; Chinaski toughens up as he grows up, finding solace in books and in the bottle.
Savagely funny and profoundly human, Ham on Rye is essential reading for anyone who has ever been ready to quit – and chosen to laugh, drink or fight back instead.
More about
the book
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.
Sometimes funny and always sad, Ham on Rye is written in an admirably hard, bare, vivid style
Both powerful and, where appropriate, extremely funny
Reflective, humane, tremendously evocative and absorbingly readable
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
Sometimes funny and always sad, Ham on Rye is written in an admirably hard, bare, vivid style. It offers grim insights into the construction of masculinity and American life between the wars. Doyle's introduction is excellent.
Charles Bukowski
View profileCharles Bukowski, who died in 1994, was the legendary Californian writer who became famous for his semi-autobiographical books about low-life America. Novels such as Factotum and Post Office made this one-time bum, and lifelong alcoholic, rich and famous, and culminated in the making of Barfly, a major Hollywood movie based on his life starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.
Charles Bukowski
View profileCharles Bukowski, who died in 1994, was the legendary Californian writer who became famous for his semi-autobiographical books about low-life America. Novels such as Factotum and Post Office made this one-time bum, and lifelong alcoholic, rich and famous, and culminated in the making of Barfly, a major Hollywood movie based on his life starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.
