In a message dated 11/27/02 4:28:18 AM,
Robison_M@crane.navy.mil writes:
<< I was thumbing through the special Pulp edition of
Crime Time
last night and found another one, John Fante. Does
anybody
have any recommendations for him? The article I looked
at
mentioned 1933 WAS A BAD YEAR and another one I can't
remember.
Abebooks has WAIT UNTIL SPRING BANDINI, FULL OF LIFE,
BROTHER-
HOOD OF THE GRAPE, ASK THE DUST, and WEST OF SPRING (2
novellas),
and a book of stories called WINE OF YOUTH. >>
I've read ASK THE DUST and WAIT UNTIL SPRING BANDINI, as well
as FULL OF LIFE, Fante's biography written by Stephen Cooper.
Fante has been recently rediscovered by the local literary
intelligencia and touted as an unheralded genius. Ask the
Dust and Wait Until Spring Bandini are fictionalized accounts
of Fante's boyhood and early life in Los Angeles. Bandini is
a young writer who is utterly convinced of his own literary
prowess, and wants to convince you too. He is not a very
pleasant character to spend much time with, the sort of
obnoxious guy who, if you met at a cocktail party, you'd want
to lock in the garage.
My personal take is that Fante is much ado about nothing. His
prose style is florid and his stories don't seem to go
anywhere. The only thing hardboiled about him is the lousy
way he treats women. I only managed to wade through both DUST
and BANDINI, Fante's most famous works because Stephen Cooper
lives across the street from me and regards the author in
such high esteem.
But make up your own mind. People whose business is to know
and teach literature think the guy's the Cat's Pajamas. I'm
just a guy who writes for a living.
John Lau
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