Analysis of Ham on Rye – a Semi-autobiography by Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski is known for being an underground author writing about the underbelly of America, specifically Los Angeles where he was born, both in non-fiction novel writing and poetry. Bukowski writes in blatant, honest and some could call it a pessimistic point of view. Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski is an embodiment of this.

Ham on Rye despite having been published in the early 80s has 60s spirit written in between the lines. The 1960s were about pushing boundaries and breaking societal rules to make a strive towards enjoyment and the American dream.

That's exactly what Bukowski wrote about: violence, sexual and misogynistic behaviour he did with and without his friends. Bukowski writes about the dark sides of life, private family affairs that by the norms of society at that time should be kept private; how his father beats him and how his mother is just spectating allowing it every single time. When the Great Depression and massive job loss occurred. In the book and when Henry’s father gets let off of his job, Bukowski mentions it multiple in every following chapter. Although reading Ham on Rye in modern 21st century you might not think this book is scandalous but for its time, it was quite the opposite when it got published in 1982. Readers in the 20th century would call this barbaric and out of the norm, talking about such private issues and events was unheard of or frowned upon. People didn’t like hearing about all of the things that made them bitter. Despite the book’s uniqueness and its profound ideas, Ham on Rye is a captivating story that makes you attached to the book all the way to the end.

Ham on Rye, it’s a semi-autobiography that covers Charles Bukowski’s life starting from his childhood to his late 20s. The novel starts by showing Henry’s heavy dysfunctional family. Henry has limited access to his grandmother and almost none to his grandfather. Henry proceeds to have beatings from his father once a week if not more for things he couldn’t control. How each Saturday Henry has to cut the lawn and if his father finds a single blade of grass sticking out a beating would be waiting in the bathroom. Witnessing all these events unfold his mother watches just like a bystander on the street.

Outside of Henry’s misery in his house. He and his few acquaintances that he talks to at school have a very sexual visualization of women, including Henry. They would talk about who their preferred girl is to have intercourse with or how their teacher was so sexually attractive.

Henry also starts drinking alcohol at a young age. His friend Baldy brings him over to his house one day and they head to the cellar. In Baldy’s cellar his father has barrels of ale which they both preseeded to take drinks from. After they are done drinking Henry says “well, now I have found something, I have found something that is going to help me, for a long time to come” (Bukowski 22). Henry has only drunk once and he is already talking about how alcohol is going to play a major role in his life.

One of the main themes is recurring, the dark side of life. Bukowski writes with no filter. Bukowski describes his father’s beatings in great detail, how each time he got hit the surrounding bathroom view from his eyes would get harder to see out of and after the beating was done it took Henry a bit of time to gain his bearings again.

Another one of Bukowski’s themes is the lack of moral values. An incident occurs where Henry’s friend Chuck wants to kill an innocent cat with his dog Barney. After the cat repels one of the attacks from the dog Henry tries to tell off his friends with no appeal. As all of these events are unfolding the mailman Mr.Gibson is just watching not helping, just waiting for the climax of the kill. Bukowski can agree to this point because Henry states “That cat wasn’t only facing the bulldog, it was facing Humanity”(Bukowski, 20). Telling the reader that this dog attacking the cat had a deeper meaning.

Reading about all of these bitter ideas and events, was rare in the 20th century. Everyone wanted to be prosperous and successful, following the American dream. Reading Bukowski’s pessimistic yet truthful stories didn’t feel right at that time. After all, World War II was only 37 years prior to Ham on Rye’s publicity, and the United States of America was in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. With unknown nuclear warfare on the horizon, not knowing if mankind will make it to the 21st century mixed with Bukowski’s sorrow point of view on life, it’s deemed too much of despair.

Overall, Ham on Rye is a well-written novel. In an interview with Bukowski, he stated that all the other authors in his time put him to sleep. He would start reading the book and lose interest in it only a chapter in.

“Like any other writer, there's no pace. There's no quickness in his lines there's no life there's no sunlight. When you write your words must go like this Bim Bim Bim, Bim Bim Bim, Bim Bim Bim. Each line must be full with delicious little juice, flavour, they must be full of power they must make you like to turn a page. What these guys do they say well [proseeds to imitate an author] there was a porch chair, the flies were walking around, you say that too leisurely. They’re setting up the scene for a grand emotion and when they get to the grand emotion there isn’t any”.

That is Bukowski’s response to why he finds these authors boring. This response translates to all of Bukowski’s literature. None of Bukowski’s books are stale or cliche.

One other crucial characteristics of what made Bukowski’s literature so unique is his lack of fear of failure. Bukowski states that when he was leaving his job at the press where he had been working for over 50 years, one of the other employees said he was crazy for leaving a good job like this. Bukowski thought to himself, maybe it was the wrong move to make leaving the press. “But I didn't care, I was ready to go down skid road, I was tired of it all”. Bukowski despite not having a job anymore continued writing about his unfortunate life.

All of this can be encased into a controversial author. One way of thinking of a controversy is being so unique it's unheard of, which is what Bukowksi’ legacy was.