Ham on Rye
Charles Bukowski's Ham On Rye is a tale of growing up during the Depression. Like most of Bukowski's novels, it hints of being autobiographical. Not surprisingly, Bukowski's tale has youngster German-American "Henry Chinaski" growing up in an extremely dysfunctional household. His father is a sadistic, unfeeling ogre; his mother, a limp dishrag who offers no defense against the father's cruelties to Henry.
Like all of Bukowski's novels, Ham On Rye, at times depressing, is sprinkled with savage humor. A strength of Bukowski's is perfect illustration of absurdity. For example, Henry Chinaski's dad's "master plan" to obtain wealth is revealed in plain hilarity:
"My father had a master plan. He told me, 'My son, each man during his lifetime should buy a house. Finally he dies and leaves that house to his son. Then his son gets his own house and dies, leaves both houses to his son. That's two houses. That son gets his own house, that's three houses....
Early on, Ham On Rye is a more humorous novel, and the father is depicted as more buffoon than ogre. But, as Henry grows up, his father grows more cruel. Also, life grows more dark to Bukowski's thinly disguised Henry Chinaski. The inability to receive love in his family affects Henry's popularity at school. Then, just as he's starting to feel attraction to girls, Henry develops a horrible case of acne that eventually lands him, humiliated, in a charity hospital, for treatment.
These are painful scenes to read. Bukowski is able to convey to the reader Henry's despair at being a "freak" covered all over with boils and pimples. As a defensive mechanism, he becomes a loner with an aloof facade. Inside, he's miserable. His only friends are outcasts and most adult role models he encounters are either misfits or non-caring. In fact, Henry's life is so awful that the reader almost cheers when he meets a nurse who smiles and cares.
Bukowski best illustrates how tough adolescence was to his alter-ego when he describes Henry's thoughts while he is outside watching through a window his classmates at the senior prom:
"Then I caught a glimpse of my reflection staring in a them -- boils and scars on my face, my ragged shirt. I was like some jungle animal drawn to the light and looking in. ... Couples spoke easily to each other. It was natural and civilized. Where had they learned to converse and dance? I couldn't converse or dance."
There are a few triumphs for Henry. He wins an ROTC contest at school. At his first job after high school, he beats up a former tormentor who's now in college. After the fight he's fired. He learns a little junior college, but alienates others by expressing pro-German sentiments at the dawn of World War 2.
Clues are offered as to what motivated Bukowski to become a writer. Henry discovers the library, and reads everyone, offering his opinions from Sinclair Lewis to Charles Dickens. This motivates the young Chinaski-Bukowski to write dark stories. His father discovers them and throws them away. He listens constantly to classical music. Still a loner, his only goal after graduation from high school is to get a cheap room and drink lots of booze. It's his way to survive.
Once, at his cheap boarding house, Henry barges into a room, angry that music is too loud. He interrupts an unattractive, elderly couple having sex:
"I felt terrible. The poor had a right to fuck their way through their bad dreams. Sex and drink, and maybe love, was all they had."
Those last two sentences sum up Bukowski's message of how to deal with an unhappy life.
In style, Bukowski is best at describing stark, depressing lives without pity and with humor. His sentences tend to be short and right to the point. Few words are wasted. He's not for all tastes, but few have lived who can write as
well.