Customer Reviews

86'd: A Novel (P.S.)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You better know it. Booze, broads and blow.

The self-destructive Dante's back blasting his way through life
the only way he knows how--and it ain't always pretty.

Because you sense there is an innate decency ('neath the rage
and scars) you find yourself hoping he pulls through the
wreckage that is his existance.

Would easily have given it five stars, except at 245 pages I found Bruno's latest adventure ended way too soon. I would have liked it
if it had gone for another one-hundred or one hundred and fifty pages.
But that's just me.

Actually, I would love to see Fante knock one out of the ball park with a six hundred page beast. You better believe it.

his books keep getting better and better. this one had me laughing out loud.
its like hubert selby jr, but more readable, less jumbled and chaotic.
fante has a fierce, honest, style. his version of LA is brutal. its both disgusting and endearing. when i read his escapades i cringe. its foul world he writes about, but, in a strange way, i want to live in this world.
though his stuff is relentlessly gritty, he doesn't mind getting sentimental. Most writers are too pretentious to write a nice sentimental scene. Fante does it well. theres a little Saroyan in there.
read fante. he's best.

If I had to sing the praises of Dan Fante's marvelous work in one word, it would be "Alive!"

His alter ego, Bruno Dante, is alive in every way, and so are those whom he encounters in his new job as a limousine executive and driver. The book is full of booze, drugs, poetry, self-loathing, and sex -- all rendered with brutal honesty and ruthless comedy.

A very hard book to put down. I started it while waiting for the author to begin speaking at an event, and finished it back home in one sitting.

The style is immediate, spare, and merciless -- a blessed antidote to the lily-livered, the sentimental, and the pretentious.

I also love this book (and all his others) because it shows you the dark, hidden side of Los Angeles life. Not the underbelly exactly. More like the crotch.

Buy the book, then buy all his others.

Our rascal, Man-about-town, is at it again: drinking, brawling and, most of all, trying to get the demons inside his head to leave him alone long enough to create something worthwhile on the typer--while driving a limo to make rent and having to deal with some seriously skewed Tinsel Town types.

This is a minor beef, but I hoped that we would finally, in this fourth Dante installment, get a bit of insight into what makes Bruno tick, what are the psychological scars that continue to make him get into the mishaps that he does...because we want the guy to pull through, get on a less destructive path--and lead some kind of sane existance.

Like I said: that's my "beef" with the tome--and it's fairly minor.

Bottom line: Dan Fante can write.

I'm about half way through 86'd and really enjoying the story. I would like to be able to down load more Dan Fante books on my Kindle

Fante is in a class by himself. I can honestly say his brutal, honest, ballsy, original voice stays with you long after your finish his work.

I first became acquainted with Dan Fante from his radio interview with NPR's Terry Gross, early 2010. I was literally moved to tears by this interview and promptly ordered his book. Mr. Fante uncompromisingly revealed himself during the NPR interview, conducted delicately by Ms. Gross, resulting in a fearlessly open expression of self by the author. The rawness of this truth-telling interview--like the bright, white-hot Moroccan sunlight assaulting Albert Camus' Meursault in "The Stranger"--is stunningly transferred through Bruno Dante, Mr. Fante's alter-ego in "86'd". He speaks unflinchingly of the human condition that so many of us, indeed most of us, haven't the courage to confront within our own existence. Man's eternal search for meaning is presented here with style, wit, humor, bawdiness, horror...and a hope that pays dividends which are at once unexpected and illuminating. What Mr. Fante accomplishes through his exceptional artistry is that rarest of authorial feats: He pays the reader the rarest of respect by not telling him but allowing him to experience an awakening of self, one of undeniable crystal clarity. I expect this phenomenon of dividends to continue to grace me and alter me and change me in profound ways for the rest of my life.

Chump Change , Mooch , Spitting off tall buildings, Short Dog . If you've read any of these books then you'll already have 86'd. If you haven't then quite simply you NEED to . Rarely is a book so compelling that you finish the last page and re-read it cover to cover. 86'd is that good. Fans of Hubert Selby , O'Neill , Bukowski , Hamsun will love 86'd but to be truthful if you can read there's a whole empty shelf in your heart where Dan Fante should be.Bruno Dante's world is one you can lost in , Raw like the blues this is writing that boxes with the greats. Life changing stuff.

86'D



I have no idea why I am crazy and angry and edged-out most of the time and why alcohol and painkiller pills and Xanax-type stuff are the only things that help to keep me remotely calm. I have no idea why I experience life as pointless and screwed and I know that most people probably don't pour a cup of bourbon into their milk or oat meal in the morning. That's just how it is.


This is how Chapter Two begins from the wonderful post-modern American writer begins. It's his alter ego, Bruno Dante speaking, who is the anti hero and protagonist in three previous Dante Fante Novels.

I first heard those words spoken from Dan Fante himself, while being interviewed by Terry Gross, from her popular show on NPR, Fresh Air.


I immediately went out and purchased the book, and have been hooked on Fante's stuff every since. The book is written in a first person narrative, and the narrative is colorful, angry and witty. He has strong ear for how people really speak, one really grasps the way that people speak in real time, from his work.

He's often compared to Charles Bukowski, but I hardly see the resemblance in their writing. Bruno Dante is a very different man, I believe than Charles Bukowski's, "Henry Chinanski." The only thing they really have in common is their drinking.

While the Henry Chinaski character often worked low paying menial jobs. Bruno Dante, is the lead driver in a successful limo business (even though the success doesn't last long).

Bruno Dante knows how to mingle with successful business people. He knows about The Hustle. And how to walk the walk and talk the talk, even though he may have to drink and take drugs to do it. Often the other characters are doing the same thing--snorting coke, and having unusual sex.

The Hollywood scene, is shown from the perspective of a limo driver's eye: rock stars, actors and rappers. The other drivers are often misfits too, one limo driver sells coke to his clients out of one the limousines. Their clients often have deep pockets, and tip gratuitously, which keeps Dante working very hard; which may contribute to some of the drinking and drug issues.

There is a voice inside of Bruno's head, "jimmy," who is constantly scrutinizing analyzing and insulting him. It' an angry voice, and often able get him do very unusual things--that most people would not do, like perhaps yelling too loudly to a teller down at the bank. Or firing a loaded gun at work.


David Koffman, the owner of the limousine service offers Dante a partnership in his company if he would attend twelve--step meetings, and not get arrested and convicted of a crime, other than a traffic ticket.

Well Dante comes close, but is fired from the job when a car jumps in front of his limousine, the drivers jump out-- there is an altercation. Dante has a bat, and uses it. The police show up, he blows in a breathalyzer that is twice the legal limit. He's serves time in jail briefly.

When he comes out, he gives twelve-steps another try. Will it work? Or will it not work? Whatever the outcome, Dan Fante sends us on an incredible ride in this very human and vulnerable, yet very tough, and often funny book.

There must be a Bruno inside us all, well in me anyways. I loved the scene in the grocery store when Bruno was asked to donate to charity, I want to scream about that too, and fight with the neighbors who keep their lights or music on all night. Bruno's taxi is like a metaphor of life, people jump in and out, we gotta keep driving looking ahead and not back too much. But oh, the rats who jump in and out, the dire depths of the gutter that Bruno explores and challenges and seeks to rise above. God love him, god love us all. This was a terrific read, funny, painful and disgusting, and makes me happy to live in my little ivory tower, only a step away from cabbies and the rats of Bruno's gutter. Please, more Mr. Fante!