John Fante
Last night at Kickbacks, over a few beers and lots of Elvis vs. Tupac debate, I managed to shoehorn John Fante into the conversation.
If you’re already familiar with Fante, welcome to the club, but you might want to stop reading because this is headed straight to hero-worship, and most definitely isn’t going to cover any new ground. So let’s start with this: John Fante is the most under-appreciated literary mind in American history.
There’s no reason to get too dorktacular on this blog, so I’m going to stop there. No literary analysis or any of that worthless shit, just my opinion. Which makes it a fact.
If you’ve ever read and enjoyed Bukowski, David Sedaris, or, god forbid, that masochistic metronome Chuck Palahniuk, you’ll probably dig Fante. Honestly, I have never understood the Fante/Palahnuik comparison, but I can’t avoid it.
Go buy a copy of Ask the Dust. I would lend you my copy, but Luis took it last night.