Opere e carriera After many unsuccessful attempts at publishing stories in the highly regarded literary magazine The American Mercury, his short story Altar Boy was accepted; its acceptance was accompanied by a letter that read: Dear Mr. Fante, What do you have against a typewriter? If you transcribe this manuscript in type Ill be glad to buy it. Sincerely yours, H. L. Mencken. By far, his most popular novel is the semi-autobiographical Ask the Dust, the third book in what is now referred to as The Saga of Arturo Bandini or The Bandini Quartet. Bandini served as his alter ego in a total of four novels:Wait Until Spring, Bandini(1938),The Road to Los Angeles(chronologically, this is the first novel Fante wrote but it was unpublished until 1985), Ask the Dust(1939) and finally Dreams from Bunker Hill (1982), which was dictated to his wife, Joyce, towards the end of his life. Fantes use of Bandini as his alter ego can be compared to Charles Bukowskis character, Henry Chinaski. Recurring themes in Fantes work are poverty, Catholicism, family life, Italian-American identity, sports and the writing life. Ask the Dust has been referred to over the years as a monumental Southern California/Los Angeles novel. More than sixty years after it was published, Ask the Dust appeared for several weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers List. Fantes clear voice, vivid characters, shoot-from-the-hip style, and painful, emotional honesty blended with humor and scrupulous self-criticism lends his books to wide appreciation. Most of his novels and stories take place either in Colorado or California. Many of his novels and short stories also feature or focus on fictional incarnations of Fantes father, Nick Fante, as a cantankerous wine tippling, cigar stub-smoking bricklayer. Fantes screenwriting credits include the comedy-drama Full of Life (1957), based on his novel of the same name, which starred Judy Holliday and Richard Conte, and was nominated for Best Written American Comedy at the 1957 WGA Awards. His other screenplay credits include Dinky, Jeanne Eagels, My Man and I, he Reluctant Saint, Something for a Lonely Man and Six Loves. As Fante himself often admitted, most of what he wrote for the screen was simply hackwork intended to bring in a paycheck. In the late 1970s, at the suggestion of novelist and poetCharles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press began to republish the works of Fante, creating a resurgence in his popularity. When Black Sparrow was reconfigured on its founders retirement in 2002, publication of John Fantes works was taken over by HarperCollins under the Ecco imprint. Full of Life: The Biography of John Fante was published by Stephen Cooper in 2000. ASK THE DUST Arturo Bandini is a struggling writer living in a residential hotel in Bunker Hill, a rundown section of Downtown Los Angeles. He unconsciously creates a picture of Los Angeles as a modern dystopia during the Great Depression era. His published short story The Little Dog Laughed impresses no one in his seedy boarding house except for one 14-year-old girl. Destitute, he wanders into the Columbia Buffet where he meets Camilla Lopez, a waitress. Bandini falls in love with Lopez, who is herself in love with co-worker Sam. Sam despises Camilla, telling Bandini if he wants to win over Camilla, he has to treat her poorly. Bandini struggles with his own poverty, his Catholic guilt, and with the his love for an unstable and deteriorating Camilla. Camilla is eventually admitted to a mental hospital, and moved to a second one, before escaping. Bandini looks for her, only finding her as she awaits for him in his apartment. He decides to take her away from Los Angeles, and arranges to live in a house on the beach. He buys her a little dog and they go to the new place. He leaves her there, to get his belongings from his Los Angeles hotel room. When he returns, shes gone. He tracks her down to the desert home of Sam, who is ill and dying. Before Bandini arrives, Sam has thrown Camilla out and she wanders into the desert. Bandini looks for her with an agonizing fear that he wont find the woman he loves, and he doesnt. He returns to Sams shack, looks over the empty desert land. He takes a copy of the novel he had recently published, dedicates it to Camilla, and throws it into the desert.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 21:52:46 +0000
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