4.1
Ask the Dust
by John Fante
Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.
Fiction
RELEASED2006
PUBLISHERHarperCollins
LENGTH192
LANGUAGEEN
John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Italian descent. 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Spring, Bandini* (1938), *The Road to Los Angeles* (chronologically, this is the first novel Fante wrote but it was unpublished until 1985), *Ask the Dust* (1939), and finally *Dreams from Bunker Hill* (1982), which was dictated to his wife, Joyce, towards the end of his life. Fante's use of Bandini as his alter ego can be compared to Charles Bukowski's character, Henry Chinaski. Bukowski was heavily influenced by John Fante. In the late 1970s, at the suggestion of novelist and poet Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press began to republish the (then out-of-print) works of Fante, creating a resurgence in his popularity.
4.1
Ask the Dust
by John Fante
Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.
Fiction
RELEASED2006
PUBLISHERHarperCollins
LENGTH192
LANGUAGEEN
John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Italian descent. 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. Fante's use of Bandini as his alter ego can be compared to Charles Bukowski's character, Henry Chinaski. Bukowski was heavily influenced by John Fante. In the late 1970s, at the suggestion of novelist and poet Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press began to republish the (then out-of-print) works of Fante, creating a resurgence in his popularity.
