Bukowski's take on the bildungsroman, an anti-coming-of-age story and his finest novel.

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.

Details

ISBN13: 9781837264025
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 368
Edition: Main - Cult Canons
Publication Date: 06 Oct 2026
Publisher: Canongate Books
Publication City, Country: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x12.9(L)x2.1(W)256
Weight (gm): 256

Author Biography

Charles 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.

Reviews

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 * * 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 * *
Reflective, humane, tremendously evocative and absorbingly readable * * The Times * *
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
A Laureate of American low life * * Time * *
This great novel is Bukowski's supremely honest account of a twisted childhood -- Howard Sounes * * author of Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life * *
The Thing about Bukowski is, when you read what he has to say, he's right -- SEAN PENN
Raunchy yet lyrical, occasionally hilarious while abysmally sad * * San Francisco Chronicle * *