Charles Bukowski's fourth novel, Ham on Rye, is the semi-autobiographical story of the early years of his alter ego Henry Chinaski. It is a finely written and honest account of the painful childhood of a boy marked out from his peers. Regularly beaten by his father, Chinaski is shown growing through his difficult and violent adolescence (struck with the worst case of acne his doctors have ever seen) through to the first jobs he can't and won't hold down. In this moving story of growing up Bukowski disciplines his muscular, concentrated writing and creates a novel that distils his poetry into the finest full-length piece of prose that he ever wrote. Bukowski is often good but in Ham on Rye he's great.

Sadly, best known as the alcoholic inspiration for the film Barfly (an experience he reflected on in his book Hollywood), it is as a poet, rather than a drunk, that Bukowski should be best remembered. His bitter, caustic, direct, humane, damaged poetry reflects a life dominated by poverty and booze. His poetry stretches over many, many volumes but Bukowski also wrote great novels: all of them have many faults but the first four books he wrote shine for similar reasons. Post Office and Factotum both dissect, quite brilliantly, the life of an angry, poor man forced to do mindless jobs, pushed around and considered mindless by the fools who force him to do them. Women, as Roddy Doyle points out in his short introduction, continues the themes but focuses on the numerous women who share his hero's bed and bottle. --Mark Thwaite

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

A Classic, 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's novel "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of age novel in that it tells the story of Bukowski's protagonist, Henry Chinaski, from his birth to his young manhood, ending with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Chinaski is based loosely on Bukowski's own life; but "Ham on Rye" and Bukowski's other novels are, after all, works of fiction and should be read as such.

The scene of "Ham on Rye" is Los Angeles during the Great Depression, particularly the lower middle-class homes in which Chinaski grows up, as families struggle to survive and to escape from poverty. Bukowski is at his best in describing dingy homes, streets, schools, and desperate people.

But "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of-age book told with irony and twists. It seemingly mocks the story of self-discovery and self-awakening common to these distinctively American books, but in the end I think it follows the pattern of a coming-of-age story in spite of itself. Most American coming-of-age books recount the life of a young person and end when that person comes to some crisis which he meets and, thus, attains a degree of understanding of himself which he carries through life. Bukowski's book tells the story of an unhappy childhood, as Chinaski is subjected to an overbearing father and frequent beatings. In addition, as an early adolescent, Chinaski develops a terrible case of acne which exacerbates his tendency to aloneness as well as his anger and rebeliousness. After graduating from high school, Chinaski loses a menial job, enrolls in a Junior College, and begins to drink heavily. He is well on the way to a life of alcoholism, fighting, wandering, and gambling that is detailed in chronologically later novels of Chinaski's life, such as "Factotum" or "Women".

"I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the other play and they looked foolish to me."

Yet for all its rawness and Chinaski's sense of failure and purposelessness, the book conveys a sense of promise. The book shows a young Chinaski forming the desire to be a writer, and beginning to work at his craft and respond to his experiences in a manner that, years later, would result in "Ham on Rye" and in Bukowski's other works of fiction and poetry. Some of the best moments in "Ham on Rye" show the adolescent Chinaski sitting alone in the Los Angeles Public Library and ultimately discovering authors, including D.H. Lawrence, John Fante, and Sinclair Lewis, who speak to him. As had many before him, Chinaski learns that projecting oneself into artistic creation offers a form of release from the difficulties of everyday life. Chinaski writes: "Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you."


Similarly while suffering from his acute acne, Chinaski develops a character a WW I pilot named Baron Von Himmlen, and writes stories of his imagined adventures. Chinaski writes: "it made me feel good to write about the Baron. A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be". (p. 168)

"Ham and Rye" is the story of how a young man found himself in adulthood leading a life of alcoholism, poverty, and loneliness, with no ambition and seemingly few prospects. The book is full of adolescent sexual frustration, dysfunctional families, rawness, vulgarity, and failure. It also includes some funny scenes. The story is told in a sharp, crude, no-nonsense style. But together with all the outward failure and the shocking scenes, we see a young Chinaski in the process of attaining his dream and gaining victory over himself after all. In spite of the dead-end vicissitudes of his life, Henry Chinaski perseveres and gradually brings his experiences alive and learns to make something worthwhile of his existence. He learns to reflect upon himself and his life and to describe them without cant or mercy. Henry Chinaski becomes a writer.

"Practice, that's all it took. All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't."

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

A Classic, 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's novel "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of age novel in that it tells the story of Bukowski's protagonist, Henry Chinaski, from his birth to his young manhood, ending with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Chinaski is based loosely on Bukowski's own life; but "Ham on Rye" and Bukowski's other novels are, after all, works of fiction and should be read as such.

The scene of "Ham on Rye" is Los Angeles during the Great Depression, particularly the lower middle-class homes in which Chinaski grows up, as families struggle to survive and to escape from poverty. Bukowski is at his best in describing dingy homes, streets, schools, and desperate people.

But "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of-age book told with irony and twists. It seemingly mocks the story of self-discovery and self-awakening common to these distinctively American books, but in the end I think it follows the pattern of a coming-of-age story in spite of itself. Most American coming-of-age books recount the life of a young person and end when that person comes to some crisis which he meets and, thus, attains a degree of understanding of himself which he carries through life. Bukowski's book tells the story of an unhappy childhood, as Chinaski is subjected to an overbearing father and frequent beatings. In addition, as an early adolescent, Chinaski develops a terrible case of acne which exacerbates his tendency to aloneness as well as his anger and rebeliousness. After graduating from high school, Chinaski loses a menial job, enrolls in a Junior College, and begins to drink heavily. He is well on the way to a life of alcoholism, fighting, wandering, and gambling that is detailed in chronologically later novels of Chinaski's life, such as "Factotum" or "Women".

"I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the other play and they looked foolish to me."

Yet for all its rawness and Chinaski's sense of failure and purposelessness, the book conveys a sense of promise. The book shows a young Chinaski forming the desire to be a writer, and beginning to work at his craft and respond to his experiences in a manner that, years later, would result in "Ham on Rye" and in Bukowski's other works of fiction and poetry. Some of the best moments in "Ham on Rye" show the adolescent Chinaski sitting alone in the Los Angeles Public Library and ultimately discovering authors, including D.H. Lawrence, John Fante, and Sinclair Lewis, who speak to him. As had many before him, Chinaski learns that projecting oneself into artistic creation offers a form of release from the difficulties of everyday life. Chinaski writes: "Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you."


Similarly while suffering from his acute acne, Chinaski develops a character a WW I pilot named Baron Von Himmlen, and writes stories of his imagined adventures. Chinaski writes: "it made me feel good to write about the Baron. A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be". (p. 168)

"Ham and Rye" is the story of how a young man found himself in adulthood leading a life of alcoholism, poverty, and loneliness, with no ambition and seemingly few prospects. The book is full of adolescent sexual frustration, dysfunctional families, rawness, vulgarity, and failure. It also includes some funny scenes. The story is told in a sharp, crude, no-nonsense style. But together with all the outward failure and the shocking scenes, we see a young Chinaski in the process of attaining his dream and gaining victory over himself after all. In spite of the dead-end vicissitudes of his life, Henry Chinaski perseveres and gradually brings his experiences alive and learns to make something worthwhile of his existence. He learns to reflect upon himself and his life and to describe them without cant or mercy. Henry Chinaski becomes a writer.

"Practice, that's all it took. All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't."

The Deportees, 14 Oct 2008
Roddy Doyle brings us up to date with the changing face of Celtic Tiger Dublin, including at least one well-known character, still on the hustle, from his much-acclaimed book "The Commitments", plus a whole host of immigrants whose scarily-amusing experiences are matched by the Dubliners who attempt to welcome them.

Recommended.

Hilarious, 02 Oct 2008
Buy it, read it, fall about laughing. This is a return to his best - witty and observant. Haven't laughed this much while reading a book for a long time. Highly recommended.

Talking Roddy Doyle Blues, 10 Jan 2008
`The Deportees' is an anthology of stories written by Roddy Doyle for `Metro Eireann', a newspaper started by, and aimed at immigrants to Ireland. So rather than be a straight anthology of short stories, the stories are themed either as a story written about an immigrant to Ireland or a native Irishman coming to terms with his newly found multicultural society. As a nation the Irish are used to supplying not receiving immigrant labour and receiving not supplying racial prejudice, it is undoubtedly an interesting paradox, but can Doyle's unquestionable talent make any sense of it.

The first story of the collection `Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner' is probably the most successful and certainly the most entertaining. Larry Linnane has always prided himself on the his daughters sensibilities and that they could be trusted to always independently do the right thing, he has never had any need to worry, until that is, one of them brings a `Black Fella' home for dinner. Larry's awkwardness and the care that he chooses his next clumsy fopaux is a wonder to behold.

The title story involves Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who brought `The Commitments' to the world starting a new multicultural band `The Deportees' using the Dust Bowl songs of Woody Guthrie to spell out the immigrants lot to their hosts, willing or otherwise. It is perhaps that this is such a good premise or possibly the weight of following a character from such a successful novel as `The Commitments' that means this story was never going to live up to its expectation.

Of the other stories `57% Irish' is possibly hampered by its Irvine Welch brand of surrealism not fitting nicely on Doyle's shoulders. `The Pram', again suffers, from being written as a psychological ghost story which does not sit well with Doyle's warm narrative and dialogue. The remaining four stories possibly fit the books concept best but the short form doesn't allow the characters to grow into the sympathetic hero's of Doyle's novels.

I did enjoy the book but I wouldn't count it amongst Roddy Doyle's greatest work, I think it forgets the importance of not being overtly earnest.

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

A Classic, 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's novel "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of age novel in that it tells the story of Bukowski's protagonist, Henry Chinaski, from his birth to his young manhood, ending with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Chinaski is based loosely on Bukowski's own life; but "Ham on Rye" and Bukowski's other novels are, after all, works of fiction and should be read as such.

The scene of "Ham on Rye" is Los Angeles during the Great Depression, particularly the lower middle-class homes in which Chinaski grows up, as families struggle to survive and to escape from poverty. Bukowski is at his best in describing dingy homes, streets, schools, and desperate people.

But "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of-age book told with irony and twists. It seemingly mocks the story of self-discovery and self-awakening common to these distinctively American books, but in the end I think it follows the pattern of a coming-of-age story in spite of itself. Most American coming-of-age books recount the life of a young person and end when that person comes to some crisis which he meets and, thus, attains a degree of understanding of himself which he carries through life. Bukowski's book tells the story of an unhappy childhood, as Chinaski is subjected to an overbearing father and frequent beatings. In addition, as an early adolescent, Chinaski develops a terrible case of acne which exacerbates his tendency to aloneness as well as his anger and rebeliousness. After graduating from high school, Chinaski loses a menial job, enrolls in a Junior College, and begins to drink heavily. He is well on the way to a life of alcoholism, fighting, wandering, and gambling that is detailed in chronologically later novels of Chinaski's life, such as "Factotum" or "Women".

"I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the other play and they looked foolish to me."

Yet for all its rawness and Chinaski's sense of failure and purposelessness, the book conveys a sense of promise. The book shows a young Chinaski forming the desire to be a writer, and beginning to work at his craft and respond to his experiences in a manner that, years later, would result in "Ham on Rye" and in Bukowski's other works of fiction and poetry. Some of the best moments in "Ham on Rye" show the adolescent Chinaski sitting alone in the Los Angeles Public Library and ultimately discovering authors, including D.H. Lawrence, John Fante, and Sinclair Lewis, who speak to him. As had many before him, Chinaski learns that projecting oneself into artistic creation offers a form of release from the difficulties of everyday life. Chinaski writes: "Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you."


Similarly while suffering from his acute acne, Chinaski develops a character a WW I pilot named Baron Von Himmlen, and writes stories of his imagined adventures. Chinaski writes: "it made me feel good to write about the Baron. A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be". (p. 168)

"Ham and Rye" is the story of how a young man found himself in adulthood leading a life of alcoholism, poverty, and loneliness, with no ambition and seemingly few prospects. The book is full of adolescent sexual frustration, dysfunctional families, rawness, vulgarity, and failure. It also includes some funny scenes. The story is told in a sharp, crude, no-nonsense style. But together with all the outward failure and the shocking scenes, we see a young Chinaski in the process of attaining his dream and gaining victory over himself after all. In spite of the dead-end vicissitudes of his life, Henry Chinaski perseveres and gradually brings his experiences alive and learns to make something worthwhile of his existence. He learns to reflect upon himself and his life and to describe them without cant or mercy. Henry Chinaski becomes a writer.

"Practice, that's all it took. All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't."

The Deportees, 14 Oct 2008
Roddy Doyle brings us up to date with the changing face of Celtic Tiger Dublin, including at least one well-known character, still on the hustle, from his much-acclaimed book "The Commitments", plus a whole host of immigrants whose scarily-amusing experiences are matched by the Dubliners who attempt to welcome them.

Recommended.

Hilarious, 02 Oct 2008
Buy it, read it, fall about laughing. This is a return to his best - witty and observant. Haven't laughed this much while reading a book for a long time. Highly recommended.

Talking Roddy Doyle Blues, 10 Jan 2008
`The Deportees' is an anthology of stories written by Roddy Doyle for `Metro Eireann', a newspaper started by, and aimed at immigrants to Ireland. So rather than be a straight anthology of short stories, the stories are themed either as a story written about an immigrant to Ireland or a native Irishman coming to terms with his newly found multicultural society. As a nation the Irish are used to supplying not receiving immigrant labour and receiving not supplying racial prejudice, it is undoubtedly an interesting paradox, but can Doyle's unquestionable talent make any sense of it.

The first story of the collection `Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner' is probably the most successful and certainly the most entertaining. Larry Linnane has always prided himself on the his daughters sensibilities and that they could be trusted to always independently do the right thing, he has never had any need to worry, until that is, one of them brings a `Black Fella' home for dinner. Larry's awkwardness and the care that he chooses his next clumsy fopaux is a wonder to behold.

The title story involves Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who brought `The Commitments' to the world starting a new multicultural band `The Deportees' using the Dust Bowl songs of Woody Guthrie to spell out the immigrants lot to their hosts, willing or otherwise. It is perhaps that this is such a good premise or possibly the weight of following a character from such a successful novel as `The Commitments' that means this story was never going to live up to its expectation.

Of the other stories `57% Irish' is possibly hampered by its Irvine Welch brand of surrealism not fitting nicely on Doyle's shoulders. `The Pram', again suffers, from being written as a psychological ghost story which does not sit well with Doyle's warm narrative and dialogue. The remaining four stories possibly fit the books concept best but the short form doesn't allow the characters to grow into the sympathetic hero's of Doyle's novels.

I did enjoy the book but I wouldn't count it amongst Roddy Doyle's greatest work, I think it forgets the importance of not being overtly earnest.


Moving, intelligent, addictive, 17 Jun 2008
The last reviewer said that this had school reading list written all over it. Well I guess I'm about to prove his point. I'm a secondary English teacher and this was left at our school by a Heinemann rep. Seeing as I was the only one who seemed vaguely interested in this book I took it home.

Now, I'm no Roddy Doyle devotee (I've never even wanted to read any of his work before) so if you're looking for a Doyle fan's perspective, some of the other reviews might help you more.

What I can say is that when reps leave novels for us I rarely finish them and never enjoy them, but I did enjoy this - a lot.

A previous reviewer mentioned that there is little of Roddy Doyle's humour in the novel, and well, I guess he's right. There aren't any jokes. Where I disagree with the previous reviewer is his assessment of the parallel storylines. I felt that they worked brilliantly. I wanted to know about the boys. I wanted to know about their sister. I found that my interest in both story lines was maintained throughout. And the two ideas are cleverly linked.

For me it was just subtle enough, and Doyle fills this book with subtle portrayals of character delivered in precise uncomplicated prose. Most teenage fiction misses the mark for me, but I believed this. It was great.

I picked this up (having forgotten about it on Monday, by Wednesday night I'd finished it. Now I am a bit of a soppy 'eejit' I admit, but the end to this book made me cry.

School reading list, here we come! - given a fair wind and a bit of leeway in the budget at least.

Great Writers Talent Lost in the Wilderness., 01 Feb 2008
Roddy Doyle is one of my favourite authors, after being thrilled by the Barrytown Trilogy I've followed his writing through Paddy Clarke, Paula Spencer and the Last Roundup books. I thought writing a memoir of his parents was a little indulgent but I still enjoyed reading it. His Meanwhile Adventure kids book I thought a scream but even so `Wilderness' didn't make me rush to the library on it's publication date. From the blurb I'd seen it would appear Roddy had written a book for teenagers with school reading list written all over it.

My memories of school and the `approved' list put me off reading for years. I used to sneak James Bond novels into school so I didn't have to read the earnest rubbish with a transparent `do the right thing' message the council had approved. Still as an ex-teacher and all round great writer maybe Roddy would write a book were the message wasn't spelled out at every turn and the characters had enough human qualities to at least make it stand up.

Well the warmth of a Roddy Doyle novel is present but the two parallel stories to drive home the message dilutes its own suitably earnest stand, but more worryingly there is absolutely no humour in this book at all. Since Roddy Doyle is one of the funniest writers to ever improve a sheet a plain paper by adding his wit to it this is the most perplexing thing I've ever come across. Since, I imagine, Roddy cannot help but be humorous and entertaining I can only imagine that this has been deliberately edited out under the misguided impression that school children don't enjoy a good laugh. When I was at school we were constantly looking for a good laugh normally to the detriment of our studies. I can't but help thinking an opportunity to mix the two has been squandered.

If Roddy Doyle is on next terms reading list, take my advice, smuggle a book in, anything by Roddy Doyle except this one.


Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 08 Nov 2007
Ten-year-old Tom Griffin and his older brother, twelve-year-old Johnny, live in Dublin, Ireland, with their parents and a teenaged half-sister, Grainne. Grainne has not seen or heard from her mother since she was a baby, and now her mother is coming from America for a visit. Grainne is nervous about the visit. Will seeing her mother heal the hurt of being abandoned by this woman?

The boys' mother, Sandra, decides to take the boys somewhere else during the visit by Grainne's mother, and arranges a holiday in Finland for herself and the boys. They are going to have a grand adventure. This story is told in alternating chapters as Tom and Johnny become acquainted with sled dogs and their handler and then go off into the wilderness on an exciting dog sled ride to a remote lodge. And as Grainne nervously waits for the arrival of her birth mother.

The boys are excited about the chance to help feed and water the sled dogs, and to help with camp chores. They are having a grand time, until their mother disappears. Her lead dog is a rogue who decides to go his own way, and she becomes lost in the cold, snowy uninhabited forest. It is dark, and the sled tips over and injures Sandra. She can't get back on the sled, or get the dogs under control.

The boys decide to take a team of dogs and sled and search for their mother on their own, and they sneak out of the lodge and harness the dogs. It's dark and cold, with deep snow, and the trail is not clear, but their lead dog seems to know where he is going...or does he?

Tween readers can relate to the realistic characters and their emotions as Roddy Doyle tells this dramatic story in sparse, simple language, while keeping the tension high. With the rowdy rambunctious boys and their adventure in Finland, the frantic search for their mother, and the angst of a teenaged girl meeting the mother who abandoned her, there is something for everyone in this exciting story.

Reviewed by: Grandma Bev

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

A Classic, 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's novel "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of age novel in that it tells the story of Bukowski's protagonist, Henry Chinaski, from his birth to his young manhood, ending with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Chinaski is based loosely on Bukowski's own life; but "Ham on Rye" and Bukowski's other novels are, after all, works of fiction and should be read as such.

The scene of "Ham on Rye" is Los Angeles during the Great Depression, particularly the lower middle-class homes in which Chinaski grows up, as families struggle to survive and to escape from poverty. Bukowski is at his best in describing dingy homes, streets, schools, and desperate people.

But "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of-age book told with irony and twists. It seemingly mocks the story of self-discovery and self-awakening common to these distinctively American books, but in the end I think it follows the pattern of a coming-of-age story in spite of itself. Most American coming-of-age books recount the life of a young person and end when that person comes to some crisis which he meets and, thus, attains a degree of understanding of himself which he carries through life. Bukowski's book tells the story of an unhappy childhood, as Chinaski is subjected to an overbearing father and frequent beatings. In addition, as an early adolescent, Chinaski develops a terrible case of acne which exacerbates his tendency to aloneness as well as his anger and rebeliousness. After graduating from high school, Chinaski loses a menial job, enrolls in a Junior College, and begins to drink heavily. He is well on the way to a life of alcoholism, fighting, wandering, and gambling that is detailed in chronologically later novels of Chinaski's life, such as "Factotum" or "Women".

"I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the other play and they looked foolish to me."

Yet for all its rawness and Chinaski's sense of failure and purposelessness, the book conveys a sense of promise. The book shows a young Chinaski forming the desire to be a writer, and beginning to work at his craft and respond to his experiences in a manner that, years later, would result in "Ham on Rye" and in Bukowski's other works of fiction and poetry. Some of the best moments in "Ham on Rye" show the adolescent Chinaski sitting alone in the Los Angeles Public Library and ultimately discovering authors, including D.H. Lawrence, John Fante, and Sinclair Lewis, who speak to him. As had many before him, Chinaski learns that projecting oneself into artistic creation offers a form of release from the difficulties of everyday life. Chinaski writes: "Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you."


Similarly while suffering from his acute acne, Chinaski develops a character a WW I pilot named Baron Von Himmlen, and writes stories of his imagined adventures. Chinaski writes: "it made me feel good to write about the Baron. A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be". (p. 168)

"Ham and Rye" is the story of how a young man found himself in adulthood leading a life of alcoholism, poverty, and loneliness, with no ambition and seemingly few prospects. The book is full of adolescent sexual frustration, dysfunctional families, rawness, vulgarity, and failure. It also includes some funny scenes. The story is told in a sharp, crude, no-nonsense style. But together with all the outward failure and the shocking scenes, we see a young Chinaski in the process of attaining his dream and gaining victory over himself after all. In spite of the dead-end vicissitudes of his life, Henry Chinaski perseveres and gradually brings his experiences alive and learns to make something worthwhile of his existence. He learns to reflect upon himself and his life and to describe them without cant or mercy. Henry Chinaski becomes a writer.

"Practice, that's all it took. All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't."

The Deportees, 14 Oct 2008
Roddy Doyle brings us up to date with the changing face of Celtic Tiger Dublin, including at least one well-known character, still on the hustle, from his much-acclaimed book "The Commitments", plus a whole host of immigrants whose scarily-amusing experiences are matched by the Dubliners who attempt to welcome them.

Recommended.

Hilarious, 02 Oct 2008
Buy it, read it, fall about laughing. This is a return to his best - witty and observant. Haven't laughed this much while reading a book for a long time. Highly recommended.

Talking Roddy Doyle Blues, 10 Jan 2008
`The Deportees' is an anthology of stories written by Roddy Doyle for `Metro Eireann', a newspaper started by, and aimed at immigrants to Ireland. So rather than be a straight anthology of short stories, the stories are themed either as a story written about an immigrant to Ireland or a native Irishman coming to terms with his newly found multicultural society. As a nation the Irish are used to supplying not receiving immigrant labour and receiving not supplying racial prejudice, it is undoubtedly an interesting paradox, but can Doyle's unquestionable talent make any sense of it.

The first story of the collection `Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner' is probably the most successful and certainly the most entertaining. Larry Linnane has always prided himself on the his daughters sensibilities and that they could be trusted to always independently do the right thing, he has never had any need to worry, until that is, one of them brings a `Black Fella' home for dinner. Larry's awkwardness and the care that he chooses his next clumsy fopaux is a wonder to behold.

The title story involves Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who brought `The Commitments' to the world starting a new multicultural band `The Deportees' using the Dust Bowl songs of Woody Guthrie to spell out the immigrants lot to their hosts, willing or otherwise. It is perhaps that this is such a good premise or possibly the weight of following a character from such a successful novel as `The Commitments' that means this story was never going to live up to its expectation.

Of the other stories `57% Irish' is possibly hampered by its Irvine Welch brand of surrealism not fitting nicely on Doyle's shoulders. `The Pram', again suffers, from being written as a psychological ghost story which does not sit well with Doyle's warm narrative and dialogue. The remaining four stories possibly fit the books concept best but the short form doesn't allow the characters to grow into the sympathetic hero's of Doyle's novels.

I did enjoy the book but I wouldn't count it amongst Roddy Doyle's greatest work, I think it forgets the importance of not being overtly earnest.


Moving, intelligent, addictive, 17 Jun 2008
The last reviewer said that this had school reading list written all over it. Well I guess I'm about to prove his point. I'm a secondary English teacher and this was left at our school by a Heinemann rep. Seeing as I was the only one who seemed vaguely interested in this book I took it home.

Now, I'm no Roddy Doyle devotee (I've never even wanted to read any of his work before) so if you're looking for a Doyle fan's perspective, some of the other reviews might help you more.

What I can say is that when reps leave novels for us I rarely finish them and never enjoy them, but I did enjoy this - a lot.

A previous reviewer mentioned that there is little of Roddy Doyle's humour in the novel, and well, I guess he's right. There aren't any jokes. Where I disagree with the previous reviewer is his assessment of the parallel storylines. I felt that they worked brilliantly. I wanted to know about the boys. I wanted to know about their sister. I found that my interest in both story lines was maintained throughout. And the two ideas are cleverly linked.

For me it was just subtle enough, and Doyle fills this book with subtle portrayals of character delivered in precise uncomplicated prose. Most teenage fiction misses the mark for me, but I believed this. It was great.

I picked this up (having forgotten about it on Monday, by Wednesday night I'd finished it. Now I am a bit of a soppy 'eejit' I admit, but the end to this book made me cry.

School reading list, here we come! - given a fair wind and a bit of leeway in the budget at least.

Great Writers Talent Lost in the Wilderness., 01 Feb 2008
Roddy Doyle is one of my favourite authors, after being thrilled by the Barrytown Trilogy I've followed his writing through Paddy Clarke, Paula Spencer and the Last Roundup books. I thought writing a memoir of his parents was a little indulgent but I still enjoyed reading it. His Meanwhile Adventure kids book I thought a scream but even so `Wilderness' didn't make me rush to the library on it's publication date. From the blurb I'd seen it would appear Roddy had written a book for teenagers with school reading list written all over it.

My memories of school and the `approved' list put me off reading for years. I used to sneak James Bond novels into school so I didn't have to read the earnest rubbish with a transparent `do the right thing' message the council had approved. Still as an ex-teacher and all round great writer maybe Roddy would write a book were the message wasn't spelled out at every turn and the characters had enough human qualities to at least make it stand up.

Well the warmth of a Roddy Doyle novel is present but the two parallel stories to drive home the message dilutes its own suitably earnest stand, but more worryingly there is absolutely no humour in this book at all. Since Roddy Doyle is one of the funniest writers to ever improve a sheet a plain paper by adding his wit to it this is the most perplexing thing I've ever come across. Since, I imagine, Roddy cannot help but be humorous and entertaining I can only imagine that this has been deliberately edited out under the misguided impression that school children don't enjoy a good laugh. When I was at school we were constantly looking for a good laugh normally to the detriment of our studies. I can't but help thinking an opportunity to mix the two has been squandered.

If Roddy Doyle is on next terms reading list, take my advice, smuggle a book in, anything by Roddy Doyle except this one.


Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 08 Nov 2007
Ten-year-old Tom Griffin and his older brother, twelve-year-old Johnny, live in Dublin, Ireland, with their parents and a teenaged half-sister, Grainne. Grainne has not seen or heard from her mother since she was a baby, and now her mother is coming from America for a visit. Grainne is nervous about the visit. Will seeing her mother heal the hurt of being abandoned by this woman?

The boys' mother, Sandra, decides to take the boys somewhere else during the visit by Grainne's mother, and arranges a holiday in Finland for herself and the boys. They are going to have a grand adventure. This story is told in alternating chapters as Tom and Johnny become acquainted with sled dogs and their handler and then go off into the wilderness on an exciting dog sled ride to a remote lodge. And as Grainne nervously waits for the arrival of her birth mother.

The boys are excited about the chance to help feed and water the sled dogs, and to help with camp chores. They are having a grand time, until their mother disappears. Her lead dog is a rogue who decides to go his own way, and she becomes lost in the cold, snowy uninhabited forest. It is dark, and the sled tips over and injures Sandra. She can't get back on the sled, or get the dogs under control.

The boys decide to take a team of dogs and sled and search for their mother on their own, and they sneak out of the lodge and harness the dogs. It's dark and cold, with deep snow, and the trail is not clear, but their lead dog seems to know where he is going...or does he?

Tween readers can relate to the realistic characters and their emotions as Roddy Doyle tells this dramatic story in sparse, simple language, while keeping the tension high. With the rowdy rambunctious boys and their adventure in Finland, the frantic search for their mother, and the angst of a teenaged girl meeting the mother who abandoned her, there is something for everyone in this exciting story.

Reviewed by: Grandma Bev

Very Powerful., 19 Feb 2008
I have not read any other Roddy Doyle. I tried to read Paddy Clarke Ha Ha but couldn't. But this book stayed with me in a way that not many do. I have never before read a book written by a man where he writes as a woman character in the first person... and what is so profoundly good about this is that I completely forgot that the book was written by a man, that I really felt that I was getting inside the character and she was so real. I became so involved that I had such a strong emotional reaction to the events and the characters. I have read a lot, but I would always put this on my list of top ten books I have ever read. I found it hard afterwards to read something else because I started several and they all seemed so petty and shallow in comparison.

The dark side of Barrytown., 28 Sep 2007
The Barrytown trilogy and `Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha' were the greatest feel good comedies to come out of Ireland and `The Van' and `Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha' were respectively and justifiably nominated for and awarded the Booker Prize. So the question was where next? Roddy didn't leave Barrytown for his next project but showed us it's seedier underbelly in the dark and harrowing TV show `Family'. This introduced us to the Spencer family with its domestic violence and abuse. Each episode focussed on a member of the family, Charlo, John-Paul, Leanne and Paula `The Woman Who Walked into Doors.'

Although grim `Family' didn't quite prepare us for `The Woman Who Walked into Doors' which was quite a departure for Roddy. As with `Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha' the book is written in the first person and again the form was a complete success with Paula's voice being totally convincing. That Paddy Clarke, a ten year old boy, could be brought to life by a middle aged man was a testament to Roddy Doyle's talent but that he could give voice to an alcoholic working class woman in an abusive relationship is quite unbelievable. Literature is littered with talented male writers who's writing of women parts is two dimensional and unconvincing, so to tackle this is the first person and with such emotive subject matter was a huge risk. Fortunately it succeeded and the book is a triumph as indeed in Paula's part in the battle of life.

The story works well within the form switching from childhood, adolescence and different stages of the marriage to allow the reader to piece the story together but still not prepare them for the ending of the book. I was so impressed with this form that when I decided on the subject matter of my own novel I used it as the template to tell a very different story.

When I first read `The Woman Who Walked into Doors' I didn't know how Roddy Doyle could follow `Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha', I certainly had no idea it would be possible to better it.


"He gave me a choice--right or left. I chose left, and he broke the little finger on my left hand.", 30 Apr 2007
Written in 1996, this "prequel" to 2007's Paula Spencer, tells of Paula's life from her teen years to her passionate relationship with Charlo Spencer. Part of a family of robbers, Charlo is an exciting man who makes her feel alive and gives her a sense of selfhood. Booker Prize-winner Doyle crafts a dramatic first-person narrative told by Paula, who leaves her rigid home and unsympathetic father to marry Charlo, a man her father disapproves of. Their passionate relationship and remarkable sense of communication vanish when Paula becomes pregnant with the first of their four children. Gradually, Paula finds solace in alcohol, as Charlo becomes an absentee husband and father and eventually a philandering wife-abuser.

Paula begins her story in the present, with Charlo's death--shot by the police after he has murdered a woman during a robbery--then develops the story through her reminiscences about both the good and the bad times. As she relives her courtship and early marriage and explores her early past and her more recent past,, she also tells us about her present battle with alcohol. She regrets that Nicola, her teenage daughter is responsible for the family on many occasions, since Paula works nights cleaning offices and then returns home wanting only to tell Jack a bedtime story and then abandon herself to drink.

As the story of her abuse evolves, the reader is privy to Paula's innermost conflicts. Though she knows that "I lost all my friends--and most of my teeth," she also bemoans the fact that "he beat me brainless and I felt guilty." The tendency of abuse victims to blame themselves, especially when their love has been as great as that of Paula and Charlo, explains Paula's comment that "for seventeen years I was brainwashed and brain dead." She knows that she has made her children suffer, not only because of her abuse but because of her alcoholism, but she has been powerless to change until in one violent moment, she sends Charlo out of the house and determines to live her life on her own.

Doyle's ability to structure a novel such as this one, which moves from immediate present into recent and then distant past, providing important information about character in the process, brings this dramatic novel to life. His trademark humor is subdued here in favor of the ironies of Paula's life. This is a far more serious novel that the Barrytown Trilogy--more in keeping with the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha, an equally sad story of a deteriorating marriage from the point of view of a ten-year-old boy. This poignant novel is ultimately a celebration of the human spirit as Paula determines to take control of her life and to provide a family for her children. Mary Whipple

The Days of Paula Spencer, 26 Feb 2007
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958 and saw his first novel, "The Commitments" published in 1987. It was later adapted for the big screen, a version that saw Star Trek's Colm Meaney and a very young Andrea Corr among the cast. Doyle went on to win the Booker Prize in 1993 with "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha". This is his sixth novel and was first published in 1996.

"The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" is set in Dublin and is told by Paula Spencer, a woman in her late thirties. Both Paula's parents are dead, while only two of her siblings `appear' in the book - her sisters, Carmel and Denise. She did have another sister, Wendy, who died in a motorbike accident, while her brothers - Roger, Edward and George - are only ever mentioned in passing. Paula's relationship with her father had once been good, though it seemed to have deteriorated as time went on. [...]. Paula, meanwhile, hasn't Roger in years, and isn't particularly bothered about it - theirs was another difficult relationship.

However, it's Paula's relationship with her husband, Charlo, that's central to the book. They have been separated for over a year as the book opens - though they are still technically, married. They couple had four children together, three of whom still live with Paula. (She hasn't seen her eldest son, John-Paul, in quite some time: she last heard of him squatting in some flats and suspects he's on heroin). She works as a cleaner, just about earns enough to make ends meet and is an alcoholic. As if all that isn't enough, the book opens with the arrival of a policeman at her front door to inform her of Charlo's death. Paula spends the book looking back over her life in general and her time with Charlo in particular.

While it isn't always a very cheerful book, Paula's story isn't one that will leave you feeling depressed. She proves to be a character you want the best for and, not only does she manage to raise a smile from time to time, she also manages to leave you with a bit of hope. Absolutely recommended.

So True To Life, 07 May 2006
This book had me in tears.....the complete loss of personal identity was so beautifully captured. I honestly found it hard to believe that it wasn't written by a woman who has lived through domestic violence.....and the humour was spot on too!

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

A Classic, 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's novel "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of age novel in that it tells the story of Bukowski's protagonist, Henry Chinaski, from his birth to his young manhood, ending with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Chinaski is based loosely on Bukowski's own life; but "Ham on Rye" and Bukowski's other novels are, after all, works of fiction and should be read as such.

The scene of "Ham on Rye" is Los Angeles during the Great Depression, particularly the lower middle-class homes in which Chinaski grows up, as families struggle to survive and to escape from poverty. Bukowski is at his best in describing dingy homes, streets, schools, and desperate people.

But "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of-age book told with irony and twists. It seemingly mocks the story of self-discovery and self-awakening common to these distinctively American books, but in the end I think it follows the pattern of a coming-of-age story in spite of itself. Most American coming-of-age books recount the life of a young person and end when that person comes to some crisis which he meets and, thus, attains a degree of understanding of himself which he carries through life. Bukowski's book tells the story of an unhappy childhood, as Chinaski is subjected to an overbearing father and frequent beatings. In addition, as an early adolescent, Chinaski develops a terrible case of acne which exacerbates his tendency to aloneness as well as his anger and rebeliousness. After graduating from high school, Chinaski loses a menial job, enrolls in a Junior College, and begins to drink heavily. He is well on the way to a life of alcoholism, fighting, wandering, and gambling that is detailed in chronologically later novels of Chinaski's life, such as "Factotum" or "Women".

"I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the other play and they looked foolish to me."

Yet for all its rawness and Chinaski's sense of failure and purposelessness, the book conveys a sense of promise. The book shows a young Chinaski forming the desire to be a writer, and beginning to work at his craft and respond to his experiences in a manner that, years later, would result in "Ham on Rye" and in Bukowski's other works of fiction and poetry. Some of the best moments in "Ham on Rye" show the adolescent Chinaski sitting alone in the Los Angeles Public Library and ultimately discovering authors, including D.H. Lawrence, John Fante, and Sinclair Lewis, who speak to him. As had many before him, Chinaski learns that projecting oneself into artistic creation offers a form of release from the difficulties of everyday life. Chinaski writes: "Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you."


Similarly while suffering from his acute acne, Chinaski develops a character a WW I pilot named Baron Von Himmlen, and writes stories of his imagined adventures. Chinaski writes: "it made me feel good to write about the Baron. A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be". (p. 168)

"Ham and Rye" is the story of how a young man found himself in adulthood leading a life of alcoholism, poverty, and loneliness, with no ambition and seemingly few prospects. The book is full of adolescent sexual frustration, dysfunctional families, rawness, vulgarity, and failure. It also includes some funny scenes. The story is told in a sharp, crude, no-nonsense style. But together with all the outward failure and the shocking scenes, we see a young Chinaski in the process of attaining his dream and gaining victory over himself after all. In spite of the dead-end vicissitudes of his life, Henry Chinaski perseveres and gradually brings his experiences alive and learns to make something worthwhile of his existence. He learns to reflect upon himself and his life and to describe them without cant or mercy. Henry Chinaski becomes a writer.

"Practice, that's all it took. All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't."

The Deportees, 14 Oct 2008
Roddy Doyle brings us up to date with the changing face of Celtic Tiger Dublin, including at least one well-known character, still on the hustle, from his much-acclaimed book "The Commitments", plus a whole host of immigrants whose scarily-amusing experiences are matched by the Dubliners who attempt to welcome them.

Recommended.

Hilarious, 02 Oct 2008
Buy it, read it, fall about laughing. This is a return to his best - witty and observant. Haven't laughed this much while reading a book for a long time. Highly recommended.

Talking Roddy Doyle Blues, 10 Jan 2008
`The Deportees' is an anthology of stories written by Roddy Doyle for `Metro Eireann', a newspaper started by, and aimed at immigrants to Ireland. So rather than be a straight anthology of short stories, the stories are themed either as a story written about an immigrant to Ireland or a native Irishman coming to terms with his newly found multicultural society. As a nation the Irish are used to supplying not receiving immigrant labour and receiving not supplying racial prejudice, it is undoubtedly an interesting paradox, but can Doyle's unquestionable talent make any sense of it.

The first story of the collection `Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner' is probably the most successful and certainly the most entertaining. Larry Linnane has always prided himself on the his daughters sensibilities and that they could be trusted to always independently do the right thing, he has never had any need to worry, until that is, one of them brings a `Black Fella' home for dinner. Larry's awkwardness and the care that he chooses his next clumsy fopaux is a wonder to behold.

The title story involves Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who brought `The Commitments' to the world starting a new multicultural band `The Deportees' using the Dust Bowl songs of Woody Guthrie to spell out the immigrants lot to their hosts, willing or otherwise. It is perhaps that this is such a good premise or possibly the weight of following a character from such a successful novel as `The Commitments' that means this story was never going to live up to its expectation.

Of the other stories `57% Irish' is possibly hampered by its Irvine Welch brand of surrealism not fitting nicely on Doyle's shoulders. `The Pram', again suffers, from being written as a psychological ghost story which does not sit well with Doyle's warm narrative and dialogue. The remaining four stories possibly fit the books concept best but the short form doesn't allow the characters to grow into the sympathetic hero's of Doyle's novels.

I did enjoy the book but I wouldn't count it amongst Roddy Doyle's greatest work, I think it forgets the importance of not being overtly earnest.


Moving, intelligent, addictive, 17 Jun 2008
The last reviewer said that this had school reading list written all over it. Well I guess I'm about to prove his point. I'm a secondary English teacher and this was left at our school by a Heinemann rep. Seeing as I was the only one who seemed vaguely interested in this book I took it home.

Now, I'm no Roddy Doyle devotee (I've never even wanted to read any of his work before) so if you're looking for a Doyle fan's perspective, some of the other reviews might help you more.

What I can say is that when reps leave novels for us I rarely finish them and never enjoy them, but I did enjoy this - a lot.

A previous reviewer mentioned that there is little of Roddy Doyle's humour in the novel, and well, I guess he's right. There aren't any jokes. Where I disagree with the previous reviewer is his assessment of the parallel storylines. I felt that they worked brilliantly. I wanted to know about the boys. I wanted to know about their sister. I found that my interest in both story lines was maintained throughout. And the two ideas are cleverly linked.

For me it was just subtle enough, and Doyle fills this book with subtle portrayals of character delivered in precise uncomplicated prose. Most teenage fiction misses the mark for me, but I believed this. It was great.

I picked this up (having forgotten about it on Monday, by Wednesday night I'd finished it. Now I am a bit of a soppy 'eejit' I admit, but the end to this book made me cry.

School reading list, here we come! - given a fair wind and a bit of leeway in the budget at least.

Great Writers Talent Lost in the Wilderness., 01 Feb 2008
Roddy Doyle is one of my favourite authors, after being thrilled by the Barrytown Trilogy I've followed his writing through Paddy Clarke, Paula Spencer and the Last Roundup books. I thought writing a memoir of his parents was a little indulgent but I still enjoyed reading it. His Meanwhile Adventure kids book I thought a scream but even so `Wilderness' didn't make me rush to the library on it's publication date. From the blurb I'd seen it would appear Roddy had written a book for teenagers with school reading list written all over it.

My memories of school and the `approved' list put me off reading for years. I used to sneak James Bond novels into school so I didn't have to read the earnest rubbish with a transparent `do the right thing' message the council had approved. Still as an ex-teacher and all round great writer maybe Roddy would write a book were the message wasn't spelled out at every turn and the characters had enough human qualities to at least make it stand up.

Well the warmth of a Roddy Doyle novel is present but the two parallel stories to drive home the message dilutes its own suitably earnest stand, but more worryingly there is absolutely no humour in this book at all. Since Roddy Doyle is one of the funniest writers to ever improve a sheet a plain paper by adding his wit to it this is the most perplexing thing I've ever come across. Since, I imagine, Roddy cannot help but be humorous and entertaining I can only imagine that this has been deliberately edited out under the misguided impression that school children don't enjoy a good laugh. When I was at school we were constantly looking for a good laugh normally to the detriment of our studies. I can't but help thinking an opportunity to mix the two has been squandered.

If Roddy Doyle is on next terms reading list, take my advice, smuggle a book in, anything by Roddy Doyle except this one.


Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 08 Nov 2007
Ten-year-old Tom Griffin and his older brother, twelve-year-old Johnny, live in Dublin, Ireland, with their parents and a teenaged half-sister, Grainne. Grainne has not seen or heard from her mother since she was a baby, and now her mother is coming from America for a visit. Grainne is nervous about the visit. Will seeing her mother heal the hurt of being abandoned by this woman?

The boys' mother, Sandra, decides to take the boys somewhere else during the visit by Grainne's mother, and arranges a holiday in Finland for herself and the boys. They are going to have a grand adventure. This story is told in alternating chapters as Tom and Johnny become acquainted with sled dogs and their handler and then go off into the wilderness on an exciting dog sled ride to a remote lodge. And as Grainne nervously waits for the arrival of her birth mother.

The boys are excited about the chance to help feed and water the sled dogs, and to help with camp chores. They are having a grand time, until their mother disappears. Her lead dog is a rogue who decides to go his own way, and she becomes lost in the cold, snowy uninhabited forest. It is dark, and the sled tips over and injures Sandra. She can't get back on the sled, or get the dogs under control.

The boys decide to take a team of dogs and sled and search for their mother on their own, and they sneak out of the lodge and harness the dogs. It's dark and cold, with deep snow, and the trail is not clear, but their lead dog seems to know where he is going...or does he?

Tween readers can relate to the realistic characters and their emotions as Roddy Doyle tells this dramatic story in sparse, simple language, while keeping the tension high. With the rowdy rambunctious boys and their adventure in Finland, the frantic search for their mother, and the angst of a teenaged girl meeting the mother who abandoned her, there is something for everyone in this exciting story.

Reviewed by: Grandma Bev

Very Powerful., 19 Feb 2008
I have not read any other Roddy Doyle. I tried to read Paddy Clarke Ha Ha but couldn't. But this book stayed with me in a way that not many do. I have never before read a book written by a man where he writes as a woman character in the first person... and what is so profoundly good about this is that I completely forgot that the book was written by a man, that I really felt that I was getting inside the character and she was so real. I became so involved that I had such a strong emotional reaction to the events and the characters. I have read a lot, but I would always put this on my list of top ten books I have ever read. I found it hard afterwards to read something else because I started several and they all seemed so petty and shallow in comparison.

The dark side of Barrytown., 28 Sep 2007
The Barrytown trilogy and `Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha' were the greatest feel good comedies to come out of Ireland and `The Van' and `Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha' were respectively and justifiably nominated for and awarded the Booker Prize. So the question was where next? Roddy didn't leave Barrytown for his next project but showed us it's seedier underbelly in the dark and harrowing TV show `Family'. This introduced us to the Spencer family with its domestic violence and abuse. Each episode focussed on a member of the family, Charlo, John-Paul, Leanne and Paula `The Woman Who Walked into Doors.'

Although grim `Family' didn't quite prepare us for `The Woman Who Walked into Doors' which was quite a departure for Roddy. As with `Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha' the book is written in the first person and again the form was a complete success with Paula's voice being totally convincing. That Paddy Clarke, a ten year old boy, could be brought to life by a middle aged man was a testament to Roddy Doyle's talent but that he could give voice to an alcoholic working class woman in an abusive relationship is quite unbelievable. Literature is littered with talented male writers who's writing of women parts is two dimensional and unconvincing, so to tackle this is the first person and with such emotive subject matter was a huge risk. Fortunately it succeeded and the book is a triumph as indeed in Paula's part in the battle of life.

The story works well within the form switching from childhood, adolescence and different stages of the marriage to allow the reader to piece the story together but still not prepare them for the ending of the book. I was so impressed with this form that when I decided on the subject matter of my own novel I used it as the template to tell a very different story.

When I first read `The Woman Who Walked into Doors' I didn't know how Roddy Doyle could follow `Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha', I certainly had no idea it would be possible to better it.


"He gave me a choice--right or left. I chose left, and he broke the little finger on my left hand.", 30 Apr 2007
Written in 1996, this "prequel" to 2007's Paula Spencer, tells of Paula's life from her teen years to her passionate relationship with Charlo Spencer. Part of a family of robbers, Charlo is an exciting man who makes her feel alive and gives her a sense of selfhood. Booker Prize-winner Doyle crafts a dramatic first-person narrative told by Paula, who leaves her rigid home and unsympathetic father to marry Charlo, a man her father disapproves of. Their passionate relationship and remarkable sense of communication vanish when Paula becomes pregnant with the first of their four children. Gradually, Paula finds solace in alcohol, as Charlo becomes an absentee husband and father and eventually a philandering wife-abuser.

Paula begins her story in the present, with Charlo's death--shot by the police after he has murdered a woman during a robbery--then develops the story through her reminiscences about both the good and the bad times. As she relives her courtship and early marriage and explores her early past and her more recent past,, she also tells us about her present battle with alcohol. She regrets that Nicola, her teenage daughter is responsible for the family on many occasions, since Paula works nights cleaning offices and then returns home wanting only to tell Jack a bedtime story and then abandon herself to drink.

As the story of her abuse evolves, the reader is privy to Paula's innermost conflicts. Though she knows that "I lost all my friends--and most of my teeth," she also bemoans the fact that "he beat me brainless and I felt guilty." The tendency of abuse victims to blame themselves, especially when their love has been as great as that of Paula and Charlo, explains Paula's comment that "for seventeen years I was brainwashed and brain dead." She knows that she has made her children suffer, not only because of her abuse but because of her alcoholism, but she has been powerless to change until in one violent moment, she sends Charlo out of the house and determines to live her life on her own.

Doyle's ability to structure a novel such as this one, which moves from immediate present into recent and then distant past, providing important information about character in the process, brings this dramatic novel to life. His trademark humor is subdued here in favor of the ironies of Paula's life. This is a far more serious novel that the Barrytown Trilogy--more in keeping with the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha, an equally sad story of a deteriorating marriage from the point of view of a ten-year-old boy. This poignant novel is ultimately a celebration of the human spirit as Paula determines to take control of her life and to provide a family for her children. Mary Whipple

The Days of Paula Spencer, 26 Feb 2007
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958 and saw his first novel, "The Commitments" published in 1987. It was later adapted for the big screen, a version that saw Star Trek's Colm Meaney and a very young Andrea Corr among the cast. Doyle went on to win the Booker Prize in 1993 with "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha". This is his sixth novel and was first published in 1996.

"The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" is set in Dublin and is told by Paula Spencer, a woman in her late thirties. Both Paula's parents are dead, while only two of her siblings `appear' in the book - her sisters, Carmel and Denise. She did have another sister, Wendy, who died in a motorbike accident, while her brothers - Roger, Edward and George - are only ever mentioned in passing. Paula's relationship with her father had once been good, though it seemed to have deteriorated as time went on. [...]. Paula, meanwhile, hasn't Roger in years, and isn't particularly bothered about it - theirs was another difficult relationship.

However, it's Paula's relationship with her husband, Charlo, that's central to the book. They have been separated for over a year as the book opens - though they are still technically, married. They couple had four children together, three of whom still live with Paula. (She hasn't seen her eldest son, John-Paul, in quite some time: she last heard of him squatting in some flats and suspects he's on heroin). She works as a cleaner, just about earns enough to make ends meet and is an alcoholic. As if all that isn't enough, the book opens with the arrival of a policeman at her front door to inform her of Charlo's death. Paula spends the book looking back over her life in general and her time with Charlo in particular.

While it isn't always a very cheerful book, Paula's story isn't one that will leave you feeling depressed. She proves to be a character you want the best for and, not only does she manage to raise a smile from time to time, she also manages to leave you with a bit of hope. Absolutely recommended.

So True To Life, 07 May 2006
This book had me in tears.....the complete loss of personal identity was so beautifully captured. I honestly found it hard to believe that it wasn't written by a woman who has lived through domestic violence.....and the humour was spot on too!

Great fun to read together, 22 Apr 2008
This is a histerically funny book to read, with so many little querky features. My son could not put it down! Roddy Doyle's uncompromising humour does not patronise, and makes it all the more fun to read together.
Brilliant!

Ho Ho Gurgle, 31 Oct 2007
Wow! This is the first Roddy Doyle 'Childrens' book I have read. The gurgle comes from the fact that I read it from cover to cover in the bath (1 bath). Absolutely brilliant - If only we could get Nick Parks or Spielburg to read this I am sure it would result in a block buster movie.

I came onto this site to see what other books of this genre were available and was totally unsurprised to see a 5 star rating. Buy it and give a copy to the biggest book snob you know (Then watch them try and put it down) - Snobs - Bah Humbug!!

My age? 55 and wishing we had books like this 'when I was a lad'.

Ho Ho Ho!, 21 Oct 2005
Zzap!! This is a great book, no question. It's Christmas eve and Rudolph's gone on strike (typical). Santa sends one of his elves to go and fetch Rover, top-notch hound, ready for anything. After grudgingly agreeing to pull the famous sleigh, Rover's in deep water. How can they deliver all the presents before morning?
Well you'll just have to read the book to find out, won't you?
Brilliant jokes, wisecracks, gags, and comical words and phrases to keep you going throughout the book. 5/5, 10/10, 18743323423423525236456457547/18743323423423525236456457547.
I also recommend the prequel 'The Giggler Treatment' and the sequel 'The Meanwhile Adventures.

Crackers, Cacti and a talking dog., 02 Sep 2003
It was absolutly hilarious from start to finish, like the previous one "The Giggler Treatment." In it Rover the dog takes over from Rudolph ,and with help from the children, delivers all the presents all over the world.
All the way through there are some bizzare chapters about talking crackers and cacti which make no sense what so ever but they made me laugh until I heard the next one.
I would recomend this book to anyone aged between 5-105.

An imaginative read for 8 -12 years, 09 Dec 2001
This is a really good book to set children's imagination working as it ia very cleverly written mischievous writing.
Rudolf the Reindeer backs our if Christmas and santa has to turn to Jimmy, Robbie and Rover the Dog to deliver the presents.I choose this story to use with a Special needs group of poor writers to spark their ideas by showing them that a story can have three different beginnings and nine different endings and clever twists. Read chapter 12 Enjoy they did!

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

A Classic, 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's novel "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of age novel in that it tells the story of Bukowski's protagonist, Henry Chinaski, from his birth to his young manhood, ending with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Chinaski is based loosely on Bukowski's own life; but "Ham on Rye" and Bukowski's other novels are, after all, works of fiction and should be read as such.

The scene of "Ham on Rye" is Los Angeles during the Great Depression, particularly the lower middle-class homes in which Chinaski grows up, as families struggle to survive and to escape from poverty. Bukowski is at his best in describing dingy homes, streets, schools, and desperate people.

But "Ham on Rye" is a coming-of-age book told with irony and twists. It seemingly mocks the story of self-discovery and self-awakening common to these distinctively American books, but in the end I think it follows the pattern of a coming-of-age story in spite of itself. Most American coming-of-age books recount the life of a young person and end when that person comes to some crisis which he meets and, thus, attains a degree of understanding of himself which he carries through life. Bukowski's book tells the story of an unhappy childhood, as Chinaski is subjected to an overbearing father and frequent beatings. In addition, as an early adolescent, Chinaski develops a terrible case of acne which exacerbates his tendency to aloneness as well as his anger and rebeliousness. After graduating from high school, Chinaski loses a menial job, enrolls in a Junior College, and begins to drink heavily. He is well on the way to a life of alcoholism, fighting, wandering, and gambling that is detailed in chronologically later novels of Chinaski's life, such as "Factotum" or "Women".

"I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the other play and they looked foolish to me."

Yet for all its rawness and Chinaski's sense of failure and purposelessness, the book conveys a sense of promise. The book shows a young Chinaski forming the desire to be a writer, and beginning to work at his craft and respond to his experiences in a manner that, years later, would result in "Ham on Rye" and in Bukowski's other works of fiction and poetry. Some of the best moments in "Ham on Rye" show the adolescent Chinaski sitting alone in the Los Angeles Public Library and ultimately discovering authors, including D.H. Lawrence, John Fante, and Sinclair Lewis, who speak to him. As had many before him, Chinaski learns that projecting oneself into artistic creation offers a form of release from the difficulties of everyday life. Chinaski writes: "Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you."


Similarly while suffering from his acute acne, Chinaski develops a character a WW I pilot named Baron Von Himmlen, and writes stories of his imagined adventures. Chinaski writes: "it made me feel good to write about the Baron. A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be". (p. 168)

"Ham and Rye" is the story of how a young man found himself in adulthood leading a life of alcoholism, poverty, and loneliness, with no ambition and seemingly few prospects. The book is full of adolescent sexual frustration, dysfunctional families, rawness, vulgarity, and failure. It also includes some funny scenes. The story is told in a sharp, crude, no-nonsense style. But together with all the outward failure and the shocking scenes, we see a young Chinaski in the process of attaining his dream and gaining victory over himself after all. In spite of the dead-end vicissitudes of his life, Henry Chinaski perseveres and gradually brings his experiences alive and learns to make something worthwhile of his existence. He learns to reflect upon himself and his life and to describe them without cant or mercy. Henry Chinaski becomes a writer.

"Practice, that's all it took. All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't."

The Deportees, 14 Oct 2008
Roddy Doyle brings us up to date with the changing face of Celtic Tiger Dublin, including at least one well-known character, still on the hustle, from his much-acclaimed book "The Commitments", plus a whole host of immigrants whose scarily-amusing experiences are matched by the Dubliners who attempt to welcome them.

Recommended.

Hilarious, 02 Oct 2008
Buy it, read it, fall about laughing. This is a return to his best - witty and observant. Haven't laughed this much while reading a book for a long time. Highly recommended.

Talking Roddy Doyle Blues, 10 Jan 2008
`The Deportees' is an anthology of stories written by Roddy Doyle for `Metro Eireann', a newspaper started by, and aimed at immigrants to Ireland. So rather than be a straight anthology of short stories, the stories are themed either as a story written about an immigrant to Ireland or a native Irishman coming to terms with his newly found multicultural society. As a nation the Irish are used to supplying not receiving immigrant labour and receiving not supplying racial prejudice, it is undoubtedly an interesting paradox, but can Doyle's unquestionable talent make any sense of it.

The first story of the collection `Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner' is probably the most successful and certainly the most entertaining. Larry Linnane has always prided himself on the his daughters sensibilities and that they could be trusted to always independently do the right thing, he has never had any need to worry, until that is, one of them brings a `Black Fella' home for dinner. Larry's awkwardness and the care that he chooses his next clumsy fopaux is a wonder to behold.

The title story involves Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who brought `The Commitments' to the world starting a new multicultural band `The Deportees' using the Dust Bowl songs of Woody Guthrie to spell out the immigrants lot to their hosts, willing or otherwise. It is perhaps that this is such a good premise or possibly the weight of following a character from such a successful novel as `The Commitments' that means this story was never going to live up to its expectation.

Of the other stories `57% Irish' is possibly hampered by its Irvine Welch brand of surrealism not fitting nicely on Doyle's shoulders. `The Pram', again suffers, from being written as a psychological ghost story which does not sit well with Doyle's warm narrative and dialogue. The remaining four stories possibly fit the books concept best but the short form doesn't allow the characters to grow into the sympathetic hero's of Doyle's novels.

I did enjoy the book but I wouldn't count it amongst Roddy Doyle's greatest work, I think it forgets the importance of not being overtly earnest.


Moving, intelligent, addictive, 17 Jun 2008
The last reviewer said that this had school reading list written all over it. Well I guess I'm about to prove his point. I'm a secondary English teacher and this was left at our school by a Heinemann rep. Seeing as I was the only one who seemed vaguely interested in this book I took it home.

Now, I'm no Roddy Doyle devotee (I've never even wanted to read any of his work before) so if you're looking for a Doyle fan's perspective, some of the other reviews might help you more.

What I can say is that when reps leave novels for us I rarely finish them and never enjoy them, but I did enjoy this - a lot.

A previous reviewer mentioned that there is little of Roddy Doyle's humour in the novel, and well, I guess he's right. There aren't any jokes. Where I disagree with the previous reviewer is his assessment of the parallel storylines. I felt that they worked brilliantly. I wanted to know about the boys. I wanted to know about their sister. I found that my interest in both story lines was maintained throughout. And the two ideas are cleverly linked.

For me it was just subtle enough, and Doyle fills this book with subtle portrayals of character delivered in precise uncomplicated prose. Most teenage fiction misses the mark for me, but I believed this. It was great.

I picked this up (having forgotten about it on Monday, by Wednesday night I'd finished it. Now I am a bit of a soppy 'eejit' I admit, but the end to this book made me cry.

School reading list, here we come! - given a fair wind and a bit of leeway in the budget at least.

Great Writers Talent Lost in the Wilderness., 01 Feb 2008
Roddy Doyle is one of my favourite authors, after being thrilled by the Barrytown Trilogy I've followed his writing through Paddy Clarke, Paula Spencer and the Last Roundup books. I thought writing a memoir of his parents was a little indulgent but I still enjoyed reading it. His Meanwhile Adventure kids book I thought a scream but even so `Wilderness' didn't make me rush to the library on it's publication date. From the blurb I'd seen it would appear Roddy had written a book for teenagers with school reading list written all over it.

My memories of school and the `approved' list put me off reading for years. I used to sneak James Bond novels into school so I didn't have to read the earnest rubbish with a transparent `do the right thing' message the council had approved. Still as an ex-teacher and all round great writer maybe Roddy would write a book were the message wasn't spelled out at every turn and the characters had enough human qualities to at least make it stand up.

Well the warmth of a Roddy Doyle novel is present but the two parallel stories to drive home the message dilutes its own suitably earnest stand, b