Customer Reviews
Indulgent and poorly structured, one of his worst. - By: Jon., 29 Nov 2008 
Of the 5 john fante novels i've read this is undoubtedly the worst. Both the central protagonist & the writing style come off as incredibly irritating, indulgent & excessively verbose. It's also probably the least clearly structured of his novels, the one most prone to the rambling, meandering style of his rather light plotting. It is also a very awkward, agressive novel, bearing none of the pathos & fluid style of the masterpieces he would write only 5 years later (Wait Until Spring & Ask the Dust).
The manuscript for this novel was found amongst fante's belongings after his death & published posthumously. This suggests that he never got round to finishing the editing of this book (it certainly reads that way) & secondly that he never wished for it to be published. I can see why. If i were a writer i certainly would not want this awkward, rambling, indulgent novel to be a work i was remembered for.
Wait Until Spring, Ask the Dust & Brotherhood of The Grape are all superb fante novels, read those & skip this one.
Bandini's first - By: marty mcfly, 18 Feb 2004 
John Fante is something of a curiosity & i think a little background work may be necessary. It would be hard to call Fante well-known, although there is certainly an element of the literary public that will adore his work, mostly because they have come at it from the recommendations of Charles Bukowski, who unashamedly idolised Fante. Fante is probably clearer & more accessible than Bukowski, but the latter has that shock factor that will draw youin the first place. In fairness, Bukowski was writingin a post-war liberal era, Fante was confined by depression era sensibilities & the difference is clearin the freedom of expression.
Anyway, Fante held grandiose ambitions of becoming a world-renowned author & it is hard to argue that he lacked the talents. His short stories were published first & then the first novel (Wait Until Spring, Bandini) followedin 1938, then the masterpiece, Ask the Dust (1939). It seems certain Fante would have made a name for himself had his luck heldin 1939, but his publisher went bankrupt & there was no money to promote the novel. So, as time passed Fante turned to film scripts to pay the rent & was lost to literature until,in 1982, Dreams From Bunker Hill appeared, just a year before Fante passed away.
My simple point is that Fante has been neglected & if you happen to stumble upon his work, you may be amazed that his is not a household name. Remember, Fante was a contemporary of Hemingway & Fitzgerald & where Fitzgerald had the melancholy finesse, Hemingway had the bold style & passion of the storyteller & Fante was perhaps the writer of a generation to possess that cold, visceral honesty that is so engaging and, at times, depressing.
This novel, The Road to LA, is another curiosity for it was Fante's first completed novel, the manuscript finishedin 1936, & it marked the beginning of the Arturo Bandini saga (oft seen as the alter ego of the author). The book was rejected & not published until 1985, after the author's death. It is not the best piece from the author, sympathy for Bandini is harder to come by, most likely because Fante seems less accessible, more introspective than elsewhere. The story is simple enough, we follow the 18-yr old Bandini as he strugglesin the depression-era. He is a poor kid, a loner & he is lostin his own imagination. The perpetual beliefin his own superiority & his own ability as a great writer (the Great Bandini!) keep him going & drive him onwards. But these are the fantasies of a child, detached from reality & hopelessly angst-ridden. Perhaps it is just my predilection, but i find the tales of the young man & the young boy more interesting & more heartfelt than this one of the adolescent.
It is a genuinely great read & i consider Fante like a soulmate on the back of the Bandini works, but this is certainly not the best of the lot.
Essential early John Fante - By: -meaulnes-, 19 Jan 2003 
When I first read John Fante I felt as if I had a great new friend, someone I wished I had known all my life. If you like books that communicate eternal, human truths to you, books that remind you of the way you felt when you were growing up, & the way you still feel today, then you will love John Fante. It's a shame the Fante never achieved much recognition when he was living & working, & that he is not as famous as he should be today, but I'm just glad he ever wrote anything at all.
"The Road to Los Angeles" is the first novel John Fante wrote, & it is probably the weakest of the books I have read so far (I am still making my way through all the books ever written by him). It's the weakest, but it still manages to make you shiver with recognition at the pure, emotional honesty of the writing. It still delights you with the orchestral, flowing sentences that are a John Fante trademark, sentences that can make you laugh & almost cry at the same time. (Try not to read John Fante on the bus, or people will look at you funny). This book seems to be John Fante finding his style, honing his craft & working out when he can go over the top, & when he should restrain the raw emotion & exaggerations that gush out of his prose sometimes.
Like many of John Fante's available books "The Road to Los Angeles" tells the story of Arturo Bandini, a compulsive, emotional young Italian American who feels that he has a calling to a higher purpose, & has a hilariously unshakeable confidence that he will soon escape the drudgery of his life. In this instalment of the Bandini saga, young Arturo is eighteen, he has just left school, & he finds himself having to support his mother & sister with a succession of menial jobs. Because of his own pigheadedness, his compulsive behaviour, & his conviction that he is better than the drudgery that surrounds him because he knows long words & reads Nietzche, Bandini manages to get fired from all his jobs. Eventually he gets a job at a fish cannery, & he comes home every night stinking of fish, secretly plotting his apotheosis with his plans to become a great writer.
There are certainly parallels with James Joyce, but the way John Fante so brilliantly portrays the burning yearning for something more & raw emotional intensity of youth, has a lotin common with that other American classic, J.D. Salinger's "The Catcherin the Rye". If you grew up thinking you were Holden Caulfield, you'll love this, & it will remind you why you loved readingin the first place. Bandini is compulsive, selfish, & foolish, but he's one of us! He's one of those kids who is never satisfied with what's therein front of him, one of those kids who feels he had something inside him to give to the world, if only the world would want it. He's one of those kids who escapes through reading, who wants to become clever by reading lots of books with big words. Anyone who ever posed with an Albert Camus bookin their teens, while not entirely understanding it, is sure to identify with the words:
"It was always the park. I read a hundred books. There was Nietzche & Schopenhauer & Kant & Spengler & Strachey & others. Oh Spengler! What a book! What weight! Like the Los Angeles telephone directory. Day after day I read it, never understanding it, never caring either, but reading it because I liked one growling word after another marching across pages with somber mysterious rumblings."
Read this. And then read everything else by John Fante, especially "Ask the Dust". You will laugh with Bandini, & you will cry with Bandini. He will make you remember things about your hopes & dreams that you thought you had forgotten.
Little recognised work of genius. - By: , 14 Oct 2000 
John Fante was one of America's most acclaimed, worshipped cult writers & this, his first novel (recoveredin the '80s) is as brilliant a coming-of-age account as "Catcherin the Rye". Fante's semi-autobiographical tale of a disturbed, fatherless Italian-American Catholic boyin Los Angelesin the mid-thirties is as darkly funny as it is insightful & heartbreaking, & anyone interestedin Beat/"alternative" American literature from the wrong side of the tracks should check it out.
Unusual point-of-view - By: , 09 May 1999 This book kept me reading!Fante kept mein the peculiar mindset of the main character, Arturo, where Arturo consciously decides to present himself to the world as a jerk; but at the same time Arturo is reflective enough for me to feel sorry for him at times.Fante writesin that gap between who we REALLY are, & how we decide what we're comfortable with showing everyone else.The Road to Los Angeles is accessible, & doesn't hammer the reader with convoluted views about how the world ought to be.Currently, I am reading Ask the Dust. Many people who've critiqued both books by Fante seem to like Ask the Dust much more. I was totally engaged by The Road to LA. Ask the Dust is a decent enough book; but The Road to LA is without question my favorite of the 2.
