Fordham University Press John Fante's Ask the Dust: A Joining of Voices and Views (Critical Studies in Italian America)

This collection gathers a diverse set of critical, personal, and artistic reflections on the trials and epiphanies of Fante's bio-fictive hero, Arturo Bandini, as he makes his way through the dust and dread of 1939 Los Angeles. As his quest for love and compassion turns to ethnic questioning and scorn, Fante's protagonist comes alive for new audiences who see now what Fante saw then: the "sad flower in the sand" that resides within us all. Review John Fante's 'Ask the Dust' confirms the extent to which Fante's work has influenced and inspired the work of so many others through the decades and to this day. He does belong on the big bookshelf of accomplished American authors, neatly tucked in before Faulkner and followed by the likes of Fitzgerald and Frost.-- "Enthymema" John Fante's Ask the Dust communicates the importance of the novel by giving space to both scholarly essays and nonacademic testimonies, which investigate the role the book has played in the development of the authors here gathered. Rather than a thorough work of academic inquiry, the present volume is therefore an homage to the writer, as the editors themselves declare.-- "Iperstoria" A decisive contribution to the critical understanding and (re)assessment of John Fante's Ask the Dust, a novel that, while appreciated by many, has never really made it into the canon. These essays effectively demonstrate the theoretical and thematic currency of the novel for today's critics and scholars, promising to become a landmark in the landscape of Fante scholarship. ---Donatella Izzo, Università degli studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", About the Author Stephen Cooper is Professor of English, California State University, Long Beach. He is the author of Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante (Angel City Press, 2005). Clorinda Donato is the George L. Graziadio Chair of Italian Studies at California State University, Long Beach. She co-wrote The “Encyclopédie Méthodique” in Spain.