Customer Reviews

The Big Hunger: Stories 1932-1959

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

 

 

Thank you Mrs. Fante for saving this piece and countless others of John Fante's work. It is so great to read Bandini after not having anything "new" for years. I have read the book twice in the 45 days I've had it. Bandini lives on! Bukowski said it best, "You should all read John Fante. That was one tough son-of-a-bitch!"

Until you've read "Jakie's Mother", a short story in the pages of The Big Hunger, you haven't experienced truth in our artform.

The stories of The Big Hunger are many and varied and show a number of different writing styles. This is a great book and one worth keeping.

While I do recommend this collection, I can't give The Big Hunger five stars only because I love Fante and have read all of his published work, and these stories are not his best work, which can be transcendent. I wouldn't want anyone to buy this collection imagining this is a good place to start with this author. Of course, if you also are a Fante fan, you'll want to read this and you won't be disappointed, as long as you accept it as a collection of miscellaneous pieces. But they are unmistakably, recognizably Fante, and I'm grateful for any scrap I can get. Moreover, there are some very, very good pieces here. The prologue to Ask the Dust, for example, is stunning, and several of the stories are on a par with those published elsewhere.

"being a writer I only live in the past and in thefuture"....arturo bandini says from THE BIG HUNGER....john fanteis alive again in my back room...he's been dead for years I know...but he is in my house now standing up shouting at me....he made me laugh and snicker first...then we got more drunk and he started in on a few stories that made me cry...john fante my old pal of stories is back...and we aren't finished yet reading them all...about half way...but I wanted somebody to know that he is with me now...THE BIG HUNGER a collection of short stories collected by Stephen Cooper...from the goldmine...