Ham on Rye

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 characteristically straightforward prose, the novel tells of his coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. The title may be a play on J.D. Salinger's 1951 book The Catcher in the Rye, which is one of the most notable coming-of-age novels about American males. Both Bukowski and Salinger were first published professionally in 1940s in the literary magazine Story, edited by Whit Burnett. However, Bukowski's admiration of John Fante suggests that a phrase in Fante's Ask the Dust,...