Tales of immigration

“The reader cannot understand John Fante unless he reads him in the light of his Italo-American essence. But the reader understands him still less if he assumes the ethnic element to be exclusive, if he considers his entire work to be a distilled autobiographical potboiler set within the ethnic-family paradigm: thus Francesco Durante, journalist and scholar of all things American, opens his exemplary essay which is the introduction to the volume dedicated to “Romanzi e racconti” (Mondadori) by John Fante, the curatorship of which he handled brilliantly. Coinciding with the twentieth anniversary of his death, the prestigious “I Meridiani” series gathers together the writings of the twentieth century's most important Italo-American author, whose fame has spread increasingly over the years (a considerable contribution to this was undoubtedly made by Charles Bukowski, author of an enthusiastic preface to the 1980 reprint of “Ask the Dust” published by Black Sparrow Press).
We have just mentioned how reductive a reading of Fante's works exclusively from the point of view of his ethnic cross-breeding would be, even though it would be impossible to exclude it: those who wish to make sure of this will find ample confirmation in the tetralogy of Arturo Bandini, comical and pathetic antihero whom the Denver author endows with some of his own traits, although somewhat disguised. Beyond the enjoyable narration and the characters he introduces, nobody could deny the innovative style and content of Fante's prose, in tune with the best American narrative of the thirties, indeed often anticipating choices in style and content. As Barbara Lanati acutely noted, with respect to the American literature of the age mentioned above, Fante is not only “offbeat”, but also “out of tune” and “offbeat”, because, in an age in which “confidence in man and in the world was needed”, he introduced “the solipsistic conditions in which his characters, their families and their neighbours lived”. Almost like in a painting by Edward Hopper; another artist, not by chance, destined to late recognition.

Francesco Troiano

John Fante 
Romanzi e racconti
Mondadori
LXVI + 1700 pages
49 euros