book data
359 ratings, 3.94 average rating, 26 reviews
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published
June 5th 1985
by Black Sparrow Books
binding
Paperback, 164 pages
setting
The United States
isbn
0876856490
(isbn13: 9780876856499)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 462)
The first three chapters are well-paced and have pulled me in. Although it's Fante's first novel (which wasn't published until after his death), this takes place after Wait Until Spring, Bandini
UPDATE: The protagonist is ostentatiously verbose in his conversations with others, using colorfully large words like bobdingnagian. He's especially vigorous when excoriating his sister. He postures as a writer for quite a while before he actually writes anything.
There is a lot of gratuitou...more
UPDATE: The protagonist is ostentatiously verbose in his conversations with others, using colorfully large words like bobdingnagian. He's especially vigorous when excoriating his sister. He postures as a writer for quite a while before he actually writes anything.
There is a lot of gratuitou...more
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Read in October, 2007
Bandini is less sympathetic here than in Ask the Dust. We don't always have to fall in love with the narrators of stories, I hope. In my review of that book, I nominated it as a Catcher in the Rye for people in their 20s; this book would probably resonate more with a typically teenage Catcher audience.
Two brilliant sections worth mentioning: the putting down of the crab insurrection (Chapter 4), and a description of the euphoria following a inspired moment of artistic cr...more
Two brilliant sections worth mentioning: the putting down of the crab insurrection (Chapter 4), and a description of the euphoria following a inspired moment of artistic cr...more
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Although many people are, undoubtedly, familiar with Ask the Dust, I believe that this text is a much better point of initiation. Fante provocatively explores the problems that confront the poor, the disadvantaged, the writer. This book exists as a tumultous onslaught of meditations and frantic scenes of desperation. Add the intensity of Fante's constant introspective barrage and absurdly self-saturated humor, and you have the road to Los Angeles (A road that will later be covered in dust as the...more
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Bukowski said the library first came alive when he discovered Fante's work. A semi-autobiographical novel (unpublished for years) chronicling the earliest days of an aspiring author & introducing the continuing character of Arturo Bandini, this has a great self-deprecating style & amusingly depicts the mad rush of creativity when a writer's floodgates finally break open, followed by the next morning when he realizes how mediocre his first efforts turned out to be. I'm in for the series.
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Read in June, 2007
this reminds me a lot of confederacy of dunces...so if you like that book, you will love this one. i am not such a fan of that kind of character, i am not sure why some people find him so funny but there are other redeeming/actually funny things that happen in this book. i haven't explored the rest of john fante so maybe i will appreciate this book more if i read more - or so i understand.
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Read in October, 2008
¿Cómo escribir una novela que sea la biblia de los pésimos escritores, de los fracasados, de los perdedores, de los pusilánimes sin morir en el inttento? Una primer novela publicada póstumamente en la que un joven Fante no nos perdona nada y nos muestra cómo se hace la mala literatura en una novela cargada de humor e ingenio a cada página. Solo para fans.
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recommends it for:
international playboys, closet floggers
My favorite memory of this novel is when the "hero", obsessed with a girl who couldn't care less about him, licks the wall where she'd just struck a match. I like it, I think, because it sounds like something a much younger me might've done or would've liked to have done. Fante's guys, modeled after himself, were always the angriest clowns!
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Read in January, 1993
recommended to Glenn by:
Charles Bukowski
I loved every John Fante book I have read, which is most of his books. Great story telling, some of the best and most original scenes I've encountered, and great showing of the character's thought process in a very organic way. Some of the funniest, and some of the saddest, fiction I've read.
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
all
Unpublished until after his death because it was unsuitable for the mid-1930's this book is a much different take on his usual character Arturo Bandini. Still a woman hater, and the other characters are still amazingly simplistic. This is of course part of the charm of his writting.
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Boy, this was a difficult one to like. Not the smoothest intro to the world of Fante, but it still made me laugh out loud a few times. And the language is fantastic, despite how much of it made me feel a bit ill.
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This book was written in 1933, and considered too risque sociopolitically for publication at the time. One of the greatest books I've read, despite all its flaws--still postmodern after all these years.
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I read this book a long time ago, but I loved it. Arturo Bandini is confused yet sure of himself. I remember being like that when I first got to college.
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book was amazing....reminded me of a chaacter from a nelson Algren book... but younger... the only dissapointment was the crab attack part....
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I learned how a narrative can be arrogant, terrifying and humorous in its vision. The Road to Los Angeles is a wonderful read.
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the war against the crab section was unbelievable. the rest was mainly annoying.
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Read in August, 2007
ask the dust is a lot better
this book is like the bad album recorded in the 80's
this book is like the bad album recorded in the 80's
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Read in January, 1996
best when read aloud. preferably when standing on a coffee table or a chair.
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If you like pages full of kind of hilarious ranting, highly recommended.
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Another one that has made it to my favorites shelf. Good period piece.
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