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.

Title

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 also suggests that a phrase in Fante's Ask the Dust, "liverwurst on rye," may have inspired the title "Ham on Rye." A third possibility is that the title is a dig at the New York literary critics who generally disdained Bukowski's work, dismissing him as the equivalent of a ham actor with an overwrought, amateurish style. Thus, Bukowski may be appropriating the insult and boldly declaring himself a ham writer fueled by rye whiskey. Still another possible interpretation is that Hank perceived himself as being sandwiched, or trapped, between his highly dysfunctional parents during his formative years.