queer and loathing

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(From Wikipedia) Ham on Rye is a 1982 semi-autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. Written in Bukowski’s characteristic crude, straightforward prose, the novel tells of his coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great depression..

Ham on Rye is largely considered by critics as one of Bukowski’s best books, intended as a sort of reply to Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. As one critic said, “Bukowski is often good but in Ham on Rye he’s great.”The question of how much in the book is fact or fiction has been brought up by critics. Often brought up are the contrasts in what goes in the two “RYE” novels. Salinger’s preppy character essentially does nothing of consequence, his “week-end in New York city” one of gazing and verbalizing, whereas Chinaski fights and drinks his way into manhood. Considering that Ham on Rye was published in 1982, when Bukowski was 62, calls into question the truthfulness of some of his accounts, especially those dealing with his early childhood. Some critics have pointed to a scene where Henry writes a fake account of a presidential speech which later becomes his impetus for becoming a writer as a fabrication. Bukowski faked a faked story.