Rating: 
Summary: Great book about terrible childhood
Review: This was my first book by Bukowski that I've read and found it worth my time. He takes the reader through a child's not so pleasant life. I really took to Bukowski's writing and have started reading "Women". So far so good.
Rating:
Summary: A real revelation
Review: A real revelation. The 4th of the 4 autobiographical novels has
Henry Chikovski (Mr Bukovski's alter ego) growing up in the tough
Depression years (the 1930's not the 1990's). From a 2 year old
toddler crawling under a table to the incipient alcoholism of a
soon-to-be man, we have a true picture of miserable, unloved, and
violent childhood. But it's funny. Really funny. (The chapter
on ultimate acne will have you grimacing and grinning at the same
time). But be warned. Like most authentic art, it can shock at
times, though always for the better. Enjoy the sandwich.
Rating:
Summary: Blunt, brutal and entertaining.
Review: If you know nothing about Bukowski this is a good place to start. You'll have a MUCH clearer picture long before you finish. This book is somewhat biographical though it claims to be fiction. With Bukowski anything is plausible and if it didn't happen to him as told in the book it probably could have. Sometimes I think he's a genius and other times he seems to me as just a drunk misogynist with some writing skills. You decide.
If you do enjoy this you might consider renting "Barfly." This movie, starring Mickey Rourke, came out around 1987. Rourke seems to have captured the essence of Bukowski on film.
Rating: 
Summary: Spotty misfits of the world unite
Review: Bukowski is the writer that pimpley-faced middle-class boys turn to when they want to feel a bit bad, a bit tough. He isn't a very good writer but he is the dirty old alcoholic uncle you (perhaps) wished you had when you were younger. 'Ham on Rye' is certainly not literature but it might amuse you, particularly if you happen to fall into the 13-18 year old category or enjoy Benny Hill. Bukowski is unable to articulate a single genuine emotion without resorting to obscenity. I gave it three stars as it is the funniest door prop I own.
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST READ FOR THOSE WHO THINK LIFE STINKS
Review: I've read a few books of his poetry books and now know where Mr. Bukowski is coming from. In his poems, he's not just acting as a silly, drunk, sorry gambler for the sake of art - he IS all of these BUT he can write! He can tell a story, and Ham on Rye is a very, very good story. It's sad and happy and funny and so real all at the same time. For those growing up who think the whole world is against them and think their existence is so difficult, I recommend this book to them - and have already done so. This is one that belongs in the classrooms for its frankness and honesty. Sometimes, lots of times, life really does stink. This book however doesn't!
Rating:
Summary: Buk's Best Novel
Review: HAM ON RYE is certainly the apex of Bukowski's fiction and, for me personally, his best novel. This should be taught if not in every high school literature class, then at least in any college course about the "great American novel." A brilliant book.
Rating:
Summary: A PROFESSIONAL CYNIC
Review: If you think you know reality, than you have not experienced it. If you think society is a surrealistic disappointment, than you should read this book. Buk provides all the narration for any disenchanted member of the proleteriat. Leave the bourgeois behind and grow up with Hank.
Rating:
Summary: brute honesty
Review: bukowski is largely unknown by the collins-grisham-sheldon reading mainstream. too bad for them.bukowski's alienation and frustration with this life is his bridge to the reader. these are universal feelings. chinaski is, at first glance, a pathetic man. cruel to women, incredibly crude in his speech, not lucid enough to maintain real friendship, the hardest drinker you've ever met. but i like him. bukowski writes 'spare'. doesn't use too many words to press his point. he doesn't need them. there are laughs on nearly every page. his smallest details point out how funny and screwy and absurd the world is. bukowski is one of the few authors who can make me stop reading because i'm laughing so hard. 'the most beautiful girl in town' (short stories) and 'women' are also recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Every woman should read this book
Review: Every woman should read this book but I suspect few will. Written in the form of an autobiography, which follows the life of Henry (or Hank) who grows up in a poverty stricken home, is an outsider, dreamer, and who develops a truly horrifying case of acne/boils which makes him an object of disgust as well, it is characterised by two outstanding qualities: honesty and clarity. Mr Bukowski eschews the adjective and the adverb and like another great writer of clear English, George Orwell, it is a pleasure to read. As a former boy I can relate to many experiences that young Henry has at school, with gangs, with girls, with teachers, with parents, that seem to be of universal application. The revelation he experiences when he is praised for an "essay" he writes at school on witnessing President Roosevelt visiting, when the essay is a complete fabrication, is revelatory for the reader too. There are other such moments in this great read. One is when students in Henry's class share a joke with their teacher, and they laugh, and laugh, together; another is the sexual games another teacher plays with them and the boys feel they are truly in love with her, and she with them. There is much HUMANITY in this book. Compassion, sadness and the understanding of what it is to be human in the 20th century in America, is in this book.
Rating:
Summary: His Best novel
Review: I am a poetry man, and as such think that Bukowski is the best American poet ever. I have read almost all his writings, and truly, although I liked them and laughed, I dont think his novels are half as good as his poetry books. I laughed with WOMEN and with HOLLYWOOD, FACTOTUM and POST OFFICE. PULP was a wonderful change. But I think that HAM is his best novel, it's the story of Chinasky from his childhood until the last days of his virginity. It's much more delicate and sensual than his more sexual prose, and we can really see the good and bad in Chinasky's mother and father, and a great description of the 30's, and the depression era. Yes, read this and you'll want all his books, Bukowski is a genius and his fame will only grow in years to come. Now the man is not here phisically to prevent it from happening. And as Buk says: "some people never die and some people never live." Buk will never die.
|
