Fante's searing, effortless style eschewed the refinement of Fitzgerald, the hubris of Hemingway and the panoramic vistas of Dos Passos. Instead he marshalled the raw materials of his own life - poverty, sex, paternal hatred, Catholic guilt, misplaced pride, hard drinking, labour, fighting, overarching literary ambition and the internecine hatred within immigrant communities in pre-war America - rendering the pain and comedy with such heartbreaking simplicity as to brook no hint of the literary zeitgeist.
* Dazed & Confused *
John Fante takes some beating . . . mean, moody, disturbing and intensely atmospheric.
* The Times *
Fante was my God.
- Charles Bukowski,
John Fante knew how to make words sing. When he was on form, he could write sentences that stopped time.
* Uncut *
Bandini is a magnificent creation, and his rediscovery is not before time.
* Times Literary Supplement *