've heard a lot of good things about John Fante's Ask The Dust, and finally got around to reading it. He was a favorite of a friend of mine, and not to mention, a favorite of Charles Bukowski, who worte the introduction to the Harper Perennial edition I read. It has that sort of unbridled emotion of a Russian novel, but the context is more like that of a 30's gumshoe detective novel from Chandler or Hammett, which exposes the seedy underbelly of LA. It is a bildungstrom of sorts as it chronicles the early development of a struggling Italian-American writer Arturo Bandini, as well as his tumultuous love affair with the unstable Mexican waitress Camilia Lopez. It is certainly no traditional love story, there is no happy ending. It was recently made into a not so well-received movie starring Colin Ferrell. I can appreciate the fact that he exposes a world that often goes undocumented in literature, but I can't help but find it a bit depressing at times: the junkies, losers, and desperate. Perhaps, I need to read some of his other works before making a final judgement on Fante. I think there's enough that I like in this novel to justify reading another.
His son Dan Fante has just published a book that received a good review in the NYT Review of Books. It sounds similar in tone to his father's works.
Posted by: Eric | August 31, 2006 at 10:50 AM