Book Discussion: > Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski

>>9827854
So what do you want to discuss?

I like it....apart from the obvious lies about his physical prowess and how badass he generally was.

It's poo poo

I didn't like it too much. It tries a little too much to be rough and badass and edgy, maybe.

I liked Post Office better.

Isn't this supposed to be a biography of sorts?

I thought it was very entertaining. There were a few parts that I really really liked, but it's been years since I read it and I can't remember them clearly.

One part was when he went to the beach I think with some girls? Anyway, there were a few lines about sex and fish or something like that, and I remember laughing when I first read it and thinking about how true it was. Maybe someone can refresh my memory.

>>9827959
>thinks Ham on Rye tries to be too edgy
>likes Post Office, the one where Henry literally rapes someones, better

>>9827854
So what's this guy's deal? Why is he so popular with smelly hipsters who dropped out of state school?

>>9827854
boils. that's what i remember the most.

and that it seemed like one his most carefully crafted books.

and how, by contrast, in his very late books, like hollywood, he loosened up and the story just rolled and was very funny but also very efficient and economical storytelling.

>>9829629
>Isn't this supposed to be a biography of sorts?

It certainly smacks of being a memoir, but I think it's in the fiction dept.

File: poem1974-01-03-a_plausible_finish.jpg (58KB, 547x760px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 547x760px

I loved it. It's an easy read and shows (loosely) how the author grew up poor with immigrant parents. You can see what bullshit he went through throughout his life (throughout all three novels) and how he handled them. Bukowski might be the world's greatest misanthrope and for that I like him. I can see him in me.

Am I the only one the boils made an impression on?

Boils, getting drilled, at the county hospital. Drilled. Leaving his face scarred and disfigured. Not to mention the boils on his back.

If that was the trauma not *the* defining trauma of his childhood, it was certain *a* defining trauma, that left its mark on him for the rest of his life.