"Dreams from Bunker Hill", Hollywood vs John Fante

Dreams from Bunker Hill- John Fante

The great John Fante again folks. This time with one of the Arturo Bandini's quartet, the stories of his impulsive and passionate alter ego, and the last book Fante's wrote. Well, technically (and as his son Dan confirmed us on a special presentation he gave in Barcelona this spring) it was dictated to his wife Joyce, as Fante's was struggling with the increasing problems (blindness, lack of mobility) consequence of the diabetes that finally took him away. To think this little wonder was orally transmitted makes me shiver. How can a suffering mind have the clarity of creating such a joyful and absorbing piece? Such a masterful work of concision (barely 150 pages), a triumph of style without losing the trademark of his prose: injecting an incomparable burst of life to every sentence.

This is the fourth book I have read from Fante's, and "Dreams from Bunker Hill" might be the one that has pleased me the most. Like on "West of Rome", particularly on "My Dog Stupid", I enjoyed the less raw version of his alter egos. Bandini looks more like a younger version of Henry Molise than the aggressive Arturo of the earlier chapters of his saga, and the sense of humour, with that little hint of melancholia, permeates a character and the story, provoking a much warmer and closer feeling with reader. Hey, don't get me wrong. Fante's prose still make you feel like being involved on a boxing match in which you have zero choices to win. By the time you are beginning to catch your breath, you are on the ground, completely knock-out by his style: nervous, without reservations or artifices. A relentless attack.

Narrated from the distance maturity gives, this looks like a version of  "The Day of the Locust" from Nathanael West. Arturo Bandini tries to be succesful, or at least make a decent living in L.A., as a Hollywood scriptwriter. But very soon the reader will acknowledge his fate is to become amusingly (for us) frustrated by the cinema industry. A collection of disasters, involving fights, gorgeous women, ridiculous movie plots (a wonder of structure and lucidity these pages in particular), star fanatics living in a parallel world, and a lot of eccentrics people. Its an intense and vital satire of Hollywood, in which biles has been left aside, replaced by irony and humour.

Not enough to convince you to read it? Then let me add the book includes, offers two little, different short stories inside it, and both are excellent, entering a territory where autobiography and slight fantasy met: one with an impossible but very moving love story. The other one with an Italian wrestler. They would have been amazing tales on their own.

And one last highlight before concluding the review. Why Fante deserves all that late recognition and praise?You'll find the answer on the last paragraphs/page of chapter nine, where he reveals how he got "trapped" with writing. How lucky we are he did. Do yourself a favour: read Fante.

SCORE: 8/10

"West of Rome", the dog of John Fante

West of Rome- John Fante

I know that I will end reading everything published by John Fante and his son Dan. It's just a matter of time. So here's another one. John Fante's "West of Rome" is composed of two novellas, "My Dog Stupid" and "The Orgy". Both are excellent pieces of Fante's prodigious, straightforward, stormy prose, but they don't fit together. The book was a posthumous release, so I guess the idea, from an editorial point of view, was offering something longer (and then more expensive) than just one short book with less than 150 pages. What a sad decision from a literary perspective.  

Because "My Dog Stupid", the first and longer story is a wonderful piece of literature. Urgent, passionate and cathartic as his best novels, but adding an humorous and heart-warming edge that is refreshing and compelling. It is not that age mellowed Fante, the bitterness and drama-fated is there, but the older writer is capable of laughing about himself.

Make no mistake, reading this tale of Fante's new alter-ego Henry Molise battling against his children and sons in laws, the neighbourhood and their big dogs, Hollywood parasites and growing old while he dreams to escape to Rome is like reading another chapter of Arturo Bandini's story. The frustration and anger is intact, but our weary and tired anti-hero is also wiser, ready to look life in the eye, from time to time, and laugh about it. With the help of Stupid, his very peculiar and amusing dog, that is. What an excellent novella. 

With "My Dog Stupid" rating so high, "The Orgy" is quite a let-down by comparison. It is just a short tale that grabs you like a hurricane with a terrific start "His name was Frank Gagliano, and he did not believe in God. He was that most singular...", but never delivers. Only the immediacy of Fante's prose and the inevitable sense of danger along its pages saves it from being a conventional story about the lost of innocence of a kid. 

Anyway, "West of Rome" is a must read thanks to its first novella, where you will find all what makes reading John Fante essential: an uncontrollable passion channelled through words, a unique voice forged by toughness and a hunger for living that is bigger than life itself. Meet the dog of John Fante, you won't regret it. 

SCORE: 7/10