writing - visual - misc - huh?
bukowski splits readers into two camps. love or hate. perhaps there's a third: love and hate with a bit of respect. that's where i fall into.
ham on rye is one of the rare bukowski books that can appeal to all camps. the stories of young henry chinaski are terrific. they are filled with dysfunctional family crap seen through the eyes of a hardened youth. the kind of stories we would later see from writers like roddy doyle.
the stories in ham on rye are angry and funny. chinaski/bukowski had a rough upbringing, suffering abuse at his father's hand and from boils in his teenage years. they're the kind of stories you don't typically see in sanitized versions of what it was like growing up in the 30s and 40s. stories about beating other kids up (or getting beat up), jerking off, and being a psychological mess.
chinaski/bukowski is trying to defeat boredom throughout the stories. he tracks the schedules of airplanes that pass over his house. he becomes a writer. he gets into trouble. early on he meets the bottle and begins a life-long love affair. it's sad. but he's a guy with nothing to lose so he pushes on, regardless of his bitterness and loathing for everything.
reading these stories you are surprised that he didn't do himself in. for a guy like bukowski, though, that would have been too easy. he'd rather live an alcoholic skid-row lifestyle than let the world win. the book ends with the transition from disaffected youth to angry young man. the final stories give us a glimpse into the person chinaski/bukowski would become.
you don't feel sorry for a guy like bukowski when you read his books. he's too mean to let you feel sorry for him. through his writing you see the issues he's working out, his own form of therapy. he's proud and a bit of a braggart, but you can respect where he's coming from and appreciate his honesty.
{January 28, 2004 08:03 PM}