Ham on Rye – bukowski.

What can I say, this was a haymaker of a story to read. The portrait of the artist as a young man. I just wanted to hug him by the end. A man can only take so much shit before he gives up.

Parts that stood out to me: orange orchard, baseball, thump thump thump, falling in love with literature, dropping out of school for acne, his daily beatings from Dad, getting kicked out of the house by Dad, losing his first job immediately for fighting, just the general toxic masculinity surrounding him, getting into drinking, drinking too much to impress his peers.
Fuck, I listed most of the book.

I feel like the section on how he rationalizes naziism was pretty powerful. It makes sense, given his family history and how his life was torture. He hated every rich kid living a good life while he suffered, hated all the moralizing from their privileged vantage points. It rings as true today as it was then. If people suffer too much they won’t care. They’ll laugh as you suffer.

I feel like more young men need this book in their lives. So they can see what to watch out for.

by fromfrodotogollum