Most admirers of this prolific writer feel this novel is autobiographical, and yet also his best work. Ham on Rye from the hardened Charles Bukowski was released in 1982 and appreciated instantly by his legions of devotees. The first section of the book finds Chinaski (the character in the book, largely considered to be Bukowski) being utterly dominated by his abusive and dominant father. He then follows the path of his "real" life as he attends college for a brief period and proceeds to live in sleazy hotels, frequent cheap bars and bet at the racetrack. It is at this time that Chinaski begins sending stories to editors and accumulates a rejection pile from magazines. Bukowski's style is unmistakably hard and explicit, with a good dose of reality. His vivid sense of the harsh world and his surrounding brings the reader right to the bar stool next to him. Well written and strong, this work is definitely one of his best.

In what is widely hailed as the best of his many novels, Charles Bukowski details the long, lonely years of his own hardscrabble youth in the raw voice of alter ego Henry Chinaski. From a harrowingly cheerless childhood in Germany through acne-riddled high school years and his adolescent discoveries of alcohol, women, and the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of D. H. Lawrence, Ham on Rye offers a crude, brutal, and savagely funny portrait of an outcast's coming-of-age during the desperate days of the Great Depression.

In what is widely hailed as the best of his many novels, Charles Bukowski details the long, lonely years of his own hardscrabble youth in the raw voice of alter ego Henry Chinaski. From a harrowingly cheerless childhood in Germany through acne-riddled high school years and his adolescent discoveries of alcohol, women, and the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of D. H. Lawrence, Ham on Rye offers a crude, brutal, and savagely funny portrait of an outcast's coming-of-age during the desperate days of the Great Depression.