John Fante (1909–1983)
Author of Ask the Dust
About the Author
Image credit: By Afag Azizova - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29148093
Series
Works by John Fante
Bad Woman 3 copies
One of Us | Home, sweet home 3 copies
Wait Until Spring, Bandini | Ask the Dust — Author — 2 copies
First Communion 2 copies
Ave Maria [short fiction] 1 copy
The Wrath of God 1 copy
The Odyssey of a Wop 1 copy
The Road to Hell 1 copy
My Mother's Goofy Song 1 copy
Professionista (in Dago Red) 1 copy
Bricklayer in the Snow 1 copy
Fante John 1 copy
Associated Works
The Best Short Stories of 1941 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1941) — Contributor — 11 copies
Story in America, 1933-1934: Thirty-Four Selections from the American Issues of "Story," the Magazine Devoted Solely to… (1934) — Contributor — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Fante, John
- Birthdate
- 1909-04-08
- Date of death
- 1983-05-08
- Burial location
- Holy Cross Cemetery Culver City, California, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Country (for map)
- USA
- Birthplace
- Denver, Colorado, USA
- Place of death
- Woodland Hills, California, USA
- Cause of death
- pneumonia
- Places of residence
- Boulder, Colorado, USA
Roseville, California, USA
Malibu, California, USA - Education
- Univeristy of Colorado
Long Beach City College - Occupations
- novelist
screenwriter - Relationships
- Fante, Dan (son)
Fante, Joyce (spouse) - Awards and honors
- PEN USA President's Award (1987)
Members
Reviews
Ask the Dust by John Fante
This one goes in the "I'm glad I read it as part of my ongoing literary education, but I didn't actually enjoy it" pile. For fans of Beat writers, existential SoCal noir (Ross Macdonald, Raymond Chandler), and books featuring whiny protagonists who think their genius is unrecognized by idiots who are out to get them (Catcher in the Rye, Confederacy of Dunces).
Very dated. I can see how this was exciting when it came out, and the connection to Chinatown and other noir stories and films, but it just feels a bit boring today
I did not enjoy spending time with Arturo Bandini as a young near-destitute author in depression era Los Angeles. Everything he relates is so filtered through a self with the emotional intelligence of a gnat and only enough residual honesty to know when he is lying. His assumption that how he treats women is what they deserve is particularly distasteful, yet something in the language and the stuttering grasps at connection is compelling.
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 40
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 8,358
- Popularity
- #2,886
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 147
- ISBNs
- 377
- Languages
- 22
- Favorited
- 57
