I’m not sure what to think of Charles Bukowski. I was vaguely aware of his poetry from thumbing through it in some Los Angeles bookstores. Although not much of a movie watcher, one movie I did see was Barfly, and I suppose that shapes my perception of Bukowski as well. I have his collection, The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993, on my shelf and on my “to be read” list. Raw, powerful, not necessarily likeable, but articulate in some brutally honest ways. Which I like in his poetry. I’m not so sure I like it in his prose, so contrary to my usual review habits here, I’m going to talk about the book as an object first to give myself more time to digest his writing.
The Prototype Press, and before it, the Sharp Teeth Press, is the imprint of the late David Johnston and Mark Sarigianis. After David’s untimely passing, Mark has been driven to see the projects the two of them planned come to fruition, and Ham on Rye is the latest result. Between the two impressions, this is the fifth book I have reviewed on TWBE, and the unifying commonality is consummate press work imaginatively and passionately done.
This is a large book, measuring H x W x T, it’s 364 pages given added girth by the sumptuous thickness of the custom handmade cotton St. Armand paper. This book will not quietly drink in the dark corner booth of the library but will sit right at the bar shouting “Bukowski here!” from the shelves. Whether shelved with the gold lettering on black of the slipcase forward or the black lettering on 
cream leather of the books spine, everyone in the room be able to read it and know Henry Chinaski is in the house. Just don’t put the book next to your Dreiser or Dos Passos or it might start a fight. Put it next to your D.H. Lawrence, H.D., Turgenev, or Hemingway.
As is often the case for me with private press books, the paper used is one of my favorite features of the book. The pleasure of smelling the paper as the book is opened and the tactile pleasure of the textured feel of the paper whenever a page is flipped was delightful. The brightness of the paper would make it impossible to read in the sun without sunglasses but made it a pleasure for these old eyes in any other light. I definitely noticed reading later into dusk a couple of times before I realized I needed the lamp on! The brightness is offset by the black of the type, of course, but also by alternating tint blocks in cyan, magenta, and yellow, behind the illustrations, chapter numbers, and title on the title page. The deckled edge seems especially pronounced and beautiful for this paper. 
And the thickness and texture of the paper provides plenty of room for the type to bite into the page, creating that pleasing three-dimensionality of letterpress printing. I like the creative touch of adding in two watermarks: one for the author, CB, and one for his alter-ego and protagonist, HC.
The illustrator, Sean StarWars, really nailed the illustrations. He has widely read and admires Bukowski, and he seems to have had a lot of fun creating illustrations for this edition. He states in the prospectus that he “hopes you see [his] woodcuts as inspirations by Bukowski and not simply illustrations of his words.”
While I was interested in reading him and certainly can’t say it was boring, I’m not sure I would seek out any more of his prose. I want to say this is white teen angst defined but it’s not really; Henry has good reason to feel bitter and hopeless. He has a tough life: an abusive father, he’s a poor kid going to a rich high school, and has little opportunity except the military on the brink of World War II. CB does a great job of portraying all of that as well as how to use alcohol to deal with it. Most of the time, Henry is a realist who sees some truths about justice, war, education, relationships, etc. Like here:
The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole goddamned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves.
Maybe my favorite parts of the book are where he talks about the writers he discovers and what he likes or doesn’t like about them. Frequenting the public library, that haven window to the world for all of us, he says:
This [D.H.] Lawrence of the tight and bloody line. I had never been told about him. Why the secret? Why wasn’t he advertised?
I read a book a day. I read all the D. H. Lawrence in the library. My librarian began to look at me strangely as I checked out the books.
…
I read all the books by D.H. And they led to others. To H.D., the poetess. And Huxley, the youngest of the Huxley’s, Lawrence’s friend. It all came rushing at me. One book led to the next. Dos Passos came along. Not too good, really, but good enough. His trilogy, about the U.S.A., took longer than a day to read. Dreiser didn’t work for me. Sherwood Anderson did. And then along came Hemingway. What a thrill! He knew how to lay down a line. It was a joy. 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.
…
Turgenev was a very serious fellow but he could make me laugh because a truth first encountered can be very funny. When someone else’s truth is the same as your truth, and he seems to be saying it just for you, that’s great.
That’s good stuff. I’m always curious about what books and authors work for others and why. As a Los Angelino for the last 30+ years, I also like the glimpse of the city in the ‘30s an ‘40s. Seems like public transportation was better back then.
Even if Ham and Rye wasn’t really my jam, I know Bukowski is just that for so many others. I don’t think this edition will have any problem selling out. While I like and have my share of my private press bibliographies, reference works, retrospectives of woodblock engravers, ephemera, and book art, that’s not where my heart lies. As a reader, I want to see literature and other things to be read coming out of private presses. And it is nice to see a modern classic or another book that hasn’t been given the fine press treatment before. That’s what The Whole Book Experience is all about for me: a book that is amazing as an object of craft, skill, and material coupled with great writing telling a story, expressing an opinion, or just being alive and human in prose or verse.
AVAILABILITY: The Prototype Press publication of Bukowski’s Ham on Rye is printed in an edition of 52 copies. Head over to their website to reserve yours before they are all gone.
NOTE: The Whole Book Experience would like to thank Mark Sarigianis and the Prototype Press for the generosity that made this review possible.
The End!
I got the following question on LibraryThing and thought I would post it and the answer here:
“I would appreciate it if you would jog your memory and revisit another of Mark’s books you reviewed on TWBE four years ago – namely, Charles Bukowski’s ‘Ham on Rye’. Focusing only on the Arts of the Book, i.e., quality of paper, book design, quality of letterpress printing, illustrations, etc., please pass along your impressions now that you are four years removed from having had book in hand. Where would you place it amongst the numerous private press books you have reviewed or handled and seen at Codex?”
The whole point of this blog is to focus on the experience of reading the book, so I try to focus on both the literature (I’m a reader and rarely buy a book that cannot be read or which I will not read) and the book as an object here. As such, I might be more forgiving than a collector about things like the uniformity of the bite of the type or the inking if it’s a ripping good read. I’m much more annoyed by typos than some imperfection in the art. Especially as I’d be a happy proofreading volunteer at a press that printed works of literature.
That being said, I’m happy to talk about my memory of this book as object. Especially because I’m not a huge fan of Bukowski the prose writer; I’m much more an admirer of his poetry. But if a press I admired and whose work I think is exemplary publish another by him, I’d read it if I could get my hands on it, even if I might not spend the money to buy it if I could afford to. And when it comes to Prototype Press books, I’ll read anything that comes off the press. I have three books from the Sharp Teeth Press, where Mark Sarigianis and David Johnston started after leaving Arion Press, and love the work Mark is doing now in the renamed and relocated (Oakland California to Southern Maryland).
As this blonde and sixty’ish mind and hands remember, the craft and art of this book are excellent. I’m a sucker for paper, especially if it comes with a good dose of olfactory bliss like I recall this book having. Mark apprenticed in the foundry at Arion Press I believe, so he knows how to handle type, and his printing is excellent. There are lots of nice touches in the design as well: handmade paper from St. Armand with custom watermarks, the printing of the illustrations in three colors as well as using those colors to shadow the Gothic Bold type for the title page, a page layout that makes for easy reading, and the binding. The latter I remember really liking, especially the rounded spine and the fact that it is quarter bound pig (there’s a pun there) leather. It’s a big, heavy book, which I also appreciate.
I also think Mark found the perfect illustrator for Bukowski and this particular book. Sean Star War’s wood blocks are raw and direct just like the author.
As far as CODEX is concerned, it ranks pretty high among the books I’ve been interested in because every year it seems there is less to “read” and more to “see” there. Again, I gravitate towards fine press I can read. The more substantial, the better. If I was a bigger fan of Bukowski’s novels, I would have tried my damnedest to find a way to have a copy of this edition. I know a couple of other presses that did limited editions of his work: Black Sparrow and Bottle of Smoke if memory serves me. I’ve only seen books by the former and they are not in the same class as this edition. It beats any Bukowski I’ve seen. If you love him you should buy this book before it’s gone. There’s only 52 of them in the world and the button is still active on the Prototype Press website last I checked…