Review of Books

Ham on Rye Charles Bukowski
Five Stars
Read the week of 3.27.2015
 Listened to on Scribd.

Part One of the Bukowski Quartet:

""Our Gang of Little Rascals" as described by cranky Bukowski, is not the type shown on classic T.V.. Heck, the worst thing said on the Leave it to Beaver Show was "You were a little hard on the beaver last night."  No this gang is set in a gritty South Los Angeles, California; set during the 1950's;  in an immigrant family.  The kids here  just wants to fuck the pretty girls and set fire-crackers off in the bathroom during midterms. This book is tragically hilarious... and was a delight to listen to on Scribd.  The ending leaves us wanting more, as we hang on Bukowski's final, bitter words of Ham on Rye. 

Literature Genres Defined:

Bukowski can be an ambassador for two types of fiction:
1.Transgressive fiction:

The New York Times, described transgressive fiction thus:^[2]

A literary genre that graphically explores such topics as incest and other aberrant sexual practices, mutilation, the sprouting of sexual organs in various places on the human body, urban violence and violence against women, drug use, and highly dysfunctional family relationships, and that is based on the premise that knowledge is to be found at the edge of experience and that the body is the site for gaining knowledge.

 2.  Dirty Realism:

"Dirty Realism is the fiction of a new generation of American authors. They write about the belly-side of contemporary life – a deserted husband, an unwed mother, a car thief, a pickpocket, a drug addict – but they write about it with a disturbing detachment, at times verging on comedy. Understated, ironic, sometimes savage, but insistently compassionate, these stories constitute a new voice in fiction."^[2]

Review of Books:

Post Office by Charles Bukowski

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Bukowski (part 3) expertly describes the lives of the Pabst Drunken Sailor; the man who is sauteed in their own fat juices and slowly brought to a cooked ending. Yum! Post Office is a memoir of his sorted twelve year career in the Post Office, he also describes his life with lovely bar debutantes. We, the reader, hope he does not get syphilis from all the cunnilingus; tonging his way to a good time. We also hope that his horse comes in and he ends up the winner in a crowd of losers. Bukowski used what he learned from reading  Henri Miller, to become an authentic, reality smoked, writer. It is safe to say that, in his prose, his horse finally came in!?



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Book Lover Confessional:

New Year Goals and Reading Stats So Far (first Quarter):

Last Year:
I completely finished 11 books last year that were non fiction.  That is only 12.5 percent of my books were non fiction.   So my plan is to read one non fiction book for every three fiction books finished.

This Year:

• 6 out of 13 books read so far are non fiction.
• Fiction Books Multi Cultural Stats
• Books written by Women: 0
• Books Written by Non Caucasion: 0
  
• 7 out of 13 books read so far fiction.
• Fiction Books Genres:
• Drama: 1
• Science Fiction Fantasy:  3
• Historical Fiction: 2
• Contemporary: 1
• Fiction Books Multi Cultural Stats
• Books written by Women:1
• Books Written by Non Caucasian:1