If John Fante’s books were a medicine, the leaflet would be something like the following:

• Composition: each book contains 2 pounds of poison, an ounce of peace, a ton of anger and two of passion
• Suitability: in all cases of literary boredom, disorders of the critic system, chronic apathy, heartburn Continue reading →

“Somehow Italy was as I imagined in terms of climate and scenery, but I found the people simply gorgeous, courteous, and refined. Even the lowest peasant in Italy is somehow born to a culture and degree of civilized living that we don’t know.” John Fante, Letter to Carey McWilliams, January 15, 1958 Continue reading →

Arturo Bandini, a luckless Italian-American living in a self-fashioned
purgatory, is a pivotal–and apparently semi-autobiographical–character in
two of John Fante’s novels, Wait Until Spring, Bandini and Ask the Dust.
Fante’s mixture of straight narrative with stream-of-consciousness and
entrancing images creates an all-too-vivid portrayal of Arturo’s dilemmas Continue reading →