John Fante

"Fante was my god." —Charles Bukowski, in his introduction to Ask the Dust Arturo Bandini, a young, struggling Italian-American writer living in a seedy hotel in 1930s Los Angeles, falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. The pair embark on a strange and strained love-hate relationship, which slowly, but inexorably, descends into the realm of madness. Ask the Dust is one of the truly great, yet unsung, American novels of the twentieth century. A tough and unsentimental story with a soft and tender heart, it remains as fresh and affecting as the day it was written.

Henry Molise, a 50 year old, successful writer, returns to the family home to help with the latest drama; his aging parents want to divorce. Henry's tyrannical, brick laying father, Nick, though weak and alcoholic, can still strike fear into the hearts of his sons. His mother, though ill and devout to her Catholicism, still has the power to comfort and confuse her children. This is typical of Fante's novels, it's autobiographical, and brimming with love, death, violence and religion. Writing with great passion Fante powerfully hits home the damage family can wreck upon us all.