A very depressing John Fante story...

[LickTheStar]

Not because of the content, but because of how much it sucks. I mean... awful story. But since it was published in Good Housekeeping, it isn't too terribly shocking that this was a "paycheck" story. Still... Ugh.


For your amusement, the results are posted below.

If you feel like vomiting, use my bucket. But beware: it overflows already...

 

[Bukfan]

Thanks, LTS!

If you feel like vomiting, use my bucket. But beware: it overflows already...

Geez! I suppose it's one of those sentimental sob stories. Now, where did I put my hankie?

 

[LickTheStar]

I've only given it a quick once over while I scanned it so... maybe I'll like it more in the morning. Plus... New Years... yeah, ugh there too. Ah well, there's also next year...

 

[Black Swan]

Thanks LTS

 

[bospress.net]

Thanks LTS, but you are right, it is just an awful story. I kept hoping that it would get better, but it only got worse and worse.

Bill

 

[LickTheStar]

Yeah. What really depresses me is that it was published only a year after a lot of his really strong stories were collected in Dago Red and two months after a good story was published in the Saturday Evening Post (Helen, The Beauty Is To Me).

But by 1941, Ask the Dust had already flopped. And after 1941, he published as many short stories as he had in just the first couple of years. Still better than some of the slop he banged out for Hollywood (but also eerily similar).

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Thanks for posting, but I may have to refuse to read this if it's as bad as you all say. The Road to Los Angeles nearly soured me permanently on Fante, but fortunately I re-read Bandini and Ask the Dust shortly thereafter and climbed back into the fold.

 

[bospress.net]

don't read it. It is not good at all.

 

[LickTheStar]

I remember enjoying The Road to Los Angeles when I first read it, but then I was an angsty 19 year old kid... But yeah this... pretty bad. My collection is certainly no better for owning it, but... I still own it.

 

[HiddenFormula]

Thanks for posting, but I may have to refuse to read this if it's as bad as you all say. The Road to Los Angeles nearly soured me permanently on Fante, but fortunately I re-read Bandini and Ask the Dust shortly thereafter and climbed back into the fold.

I hear a lot of similar things about the novel, but I actually really enjoyed The Road to Los Angeles. Sure, it's by no means his greatest work but I got a lot of laughs out of that book. For me the absurdity of Arturo and his teenage arrogance is hilarious, but it's also sad because he is such a lost and lonely charachter. Hmm perhaps on 2nd reading it'll be a different experience, but so far all 2nd readings of Fante books make me like them even more!

I just read the firat page of that short story - not really worth reading I'll admit!

 

[Bruno Dante]

Have to agree about The Road to Los Angeles. I found it hilarious. Only read it once as well though. I was in stitches when he battles the army of crabs.

 

[Rob.]

The only bad parts of Road To Los Angeles are the parts that are intentionally bad...the parts where Fante is showing just how arrogant and ignorant Bandini is.

My brother picked up the book and read a random passage once when I had set it down. He declared that it was one of the worst books he had ever read. When I saw the part he had read, I had to explain to him that it was intentionally so. He had to agree that, in that case, it was very good.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

That's like saying because you intended to take a shit it doesn't stink.

 

[Rob.]

Not at all. Fante was writing in the character of Bandini in those sections. His intention was to take a shit and make it stink. He succeeded.

 

[mjp]

I would have to agree. For a first novel it was good. It was funny as hell in places, and you could see the seeds of characteristic Fante style.

If we're going to hold first novels up to the standards of a writers best work, a lot of them are going to fall short. HST comes to mind, for one.

And dare I say it - I don't think Post Office compares to Ham on Rye, or even Hollywood, as far as skill and style are concerned. They are closer maybe than Fante's first. But Bukowski was almost 50 when he wrote Post Office, and Fante was what - in his early 20's?

 

[LickTheStar]

Yeah he was very young. Started writing an unknown novel in the early 30s ('32 or '33), finished a novel length manuscript (that was at least in part The Road to LA) in 1935 for Knopf (which was rejected), and then the final manuscript for The Road to LA was finished in 1937 and subsequently rejected by at least two publishers.

So parts of it could have been written when he was 22 or 23, most of it probably closer to 25 or 26. Really funny at times. His letters indicate that he shelved it after it was rejected and decided never to be as truthful again... But considering how much finer tuned Wait Until Spring and Ask the Dust were... not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Black Swan]

Yesterday read "Wait Until Spring, Bandini". What a great writing style he had as a novelist. You can taste, feel, hear and smell it all.

Go Bandini go!

Today, I am starting on The Wine Of Youth, a hard cover I bought from Chinaski.

 

[LickTheStar]

Very nice. Would it happen to be a first edition and, if so, what date is on the colophon page?

Wine of Youth is a very strong collection of stories, especially some of the supplemental ones at the end.

 

[Black Swan]

LTS,

it is a black sparrow one. It was a library copie, so there was some kind of a sticker, on the top left, which had been peeled off, and the black ink that was lifted in the process, has been filled in with a marker.
That is a little shitty, but I am enjoying the short stories. A Wife for Dino Rossi made me laugh and cry.

First ed. 1985

 

[LickTheStar]

I just picked up one first edition of Full of Life (1952 edition, ex-lib) with a DJ for $10, and a second one without a DJ for $5, so I'm doing well on eBay at the moment...

 

[Black Swan]

So, you scoop them all.;)
I'll try my luck for one.

What gets me with Fante, is that my life as a french canadian, growing up in this part of quebec, had many similarities with these stories.
My 3 older brothers were altar boys, and I also went to school with the catholic nuns.

Many good laughs about the battle between good and evil.

Tough skin to shed.

 

[HiddenFormula]

I just picked up one first edition of Full of Life (1952 edition, ex-lib) with a DJ for $10, and a second one without a DJ for $5, so I'm doing well on eBay at the moment...

Full of Life is the only Fante book I haven't got yet. How do you rate it? I vaguely recall in his letters that he saw it as a bit of a cash in.

A Wife for Dino Rosi was probably the most memorable story in Wine of Youth.
I love that collection and I think Fante had amazing skill in capturing the way you think as a child/teenager - better than any other writer I've experienced so far.

 

[LickTheStar]

He says it was a cash in, but the story is pretty solid and incredibly funny. I last re-read it (appropriately) when my wife was going into labor. Truthfully, I really enjoy it.

The cash in stems more from the sale of the film rights (and from him writing the film script as well) in my opinion, not from the quality of the story.

 

[HiddenFormula]

^Well, so far I generally love all his published books so I hope to get it soon. As long as it's not anything like the story you posted in this thread then I'm sure I'll like it!

On the topic of film versions have you seen 'Wait until Spring, Bandini'? I have just seen the trailer for the first time and it looks better than I'd expected. A lot of the time film interpretations of books destroy the mental vision/feel in my head when reading the book (e.g. Ask The Dust) but this film looks an okay attempt, but I guess trailers are awfully misleading.

 

[mjp]

If the trailer lead you to believe it was a good movie, then yes, the trailer is misleading.

 

[LickTheStar]

I've never seen it myself, mainly because of Fante's terrible history with the film industry... but if it happened up on Netflix's streaming site, I would probably give it a watch...

But Ask The Dust has definitely soured me on Fante film adaptations. Maybe if someone adapted My Dog Stupid and found a sufficiently humping dog...

 

[bospress.net]

it is strange that the same actors are in this as in Bukowski adaptations. Ornella Muti was in Tales of Ordinary Madness and Faye Dunaway was in Barfly, two short years before this came out.

Bill

 

[james]

also, the director of "bandini" directed "crazy love".

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0220652/