The Bandini Quartet

John Fante, his work and his life

The Bandini Quartet

If you’re not familiar with the late writer John Fante (1909–1983), his novels, short stories, and screenplays, stick with me for the next few posts. Fante has captured my attention. Fante is a writer who, like Jack Kerouac, after reading his work, I want to know more of his life.

In fact, I’m noticing a number of similarities between Kerouac and Fante, both in their writing, and in their lived experiences.

But first.

I’m just finished with the “Bandini Quartet”—it’s not a band (though a great band name), but rather four books—autobiographical fiction or semi-autobiographical novels written by Fante and featuring his fictional alter ego, Arturo Bandini and sometimes referred to as The Saga of Arturo Bandini.

It is the often-quixotic tale of an impoverished young Italian American who, equipped with a Jesuit high school education and inspired with desire to write novels, escapes his stifling Colorado homelife to seek fame and fortune in a Depression-era Los Angeles.

Following are my initial thoughts on the “the quartet.”

Readers are faced with the same dilemma as Jack Kerouac’s “Duluoz Legend",” that is, which order should they be read? (I addressed the various suggested options for Kerouac’s “Legend” in a previous post here.)

Should the quartet be read in the order in which they were written? In the order in which they were published? In the order of the chronological time period covered. Or …?

Here are the titles, in the order of publication, followed by year written, approximate period covered:

• Wait Until Spring, Bandini ….. 1938, 1938, generally through high school

• Ask the Dust .…. 1939, 1939, generally through the 1930s

• Dreams from Bunker Hill ….. 1982, 1982, generally 1930s-40s

• The Road to Los Angeles ….. 1985, 1936, generally age of 18 (1927)

Yes, the last was published posthumously 50 years after written.

So, what is the “normal” order? I suppose as the four books have been collected into one volume published in 2004 by A&U Canongate and presented thusly: “Wait Until Spring, Bandini; The Road to Los Angeles; Ask the Dust; and Dreams from Bunker Hill.

How did I approach the four books?

I first read Ask the Dust (his best known), followed by Wait Until Spring, Bandini, then Dreams from Bunker Hill, and lastly The Road to Los Angeles.

NOTE: Had I begun with The Road to Los Angeles I would have gone no further with Bandini, and perhaps lost interest in Fante. There are two reasons why a reader says, “I can’t wait to finish this book!” One is because the writer happily moves the reader from Point A to Point B and you are anxious for what is next; the other is the writer sadly moves the reader from Pointless to Pointless and you can’t wait to see if there is ever going to be a Point at all. I can’t recommend The Road to Los Angeles, but, hey, no slugger hits a home run every time.

I found the first two, Ask the Dust and Wait Until Spring, Bandini outstanding and leaving me wanting more Fante as Bandini.

“I was twenty then. What the hell, I used to say, take your time, Bandini. You got ten years to write a book, so take it easy, get out and learn about life, walk the streets. That’s your trouble: your ignorance of life.” ― John Fante, Ask the Dust

I’m now reading a collection of his short stories, a biography, and a selected collection of his letters between 1933-1983 and will share a few obscure facts of his life in coming posts.

Here’s one: When Fante died in 1983, Martin Sheen attended the funeral Mass, “rising and kneeling and responding in Latin to all the antiphonal prayers.”¹

John Fante (California Digital Library)

1. Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante, Stephen Cooper, Angel City Press, 2000, 381.