Customer Reviews

Dreams from Bunker Hill

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

 

 

you don't realize just how good john fante is until after you've read (better yet: attempted to read) so much bad writing our nation's bookshelves are filled with. i'd read this one years before and remembered it as being a decent read, etc. but there i was the other night, looking for something to read; i needed a book fix, i had to have something to read. reached up for dreams from bunker hill and began my second reading of it...stayed up all night getting into this warm, compassionate tale. fante had heart, intelligence and the story of old time hollywood moves right along. stayed with it until i was finished about 5 a.m.
fante makes it look easy, but quite a few of us know better: good writing is never easy to write or come by.
we thank buk for making us aware of fante and wish fante's recognition had happened earlier in his life...but you know what they say about wishful thinking... at least people are reading him now, as well as his son dan. i dare say, here and now, dan's prose is even stronger and better than bukowski. try either fante and you'll see what i'm talking about.

This story is absolutely hilarious. This guy Fante was nuts! I know I am not a shrink, but I think it's safe to say that his elevator didn't quite go up to the top floor. However, I challenge anyone out there to pick up one of his books and see if they can easily put it down. The guy knows how to write. He may be insane, but the man holds your interest and he makes it real hard to stop reading.

"Dreams from Bunker Hill" takes place in Los Angeles in the late 1930's where Fante's favorite protagonist Arturo Bandini is a struggling writer who is given a job as a Hollywood screenwriter. Obviously, the world of Hollywood is no place for our wacky anti-hero. To me, Bandini seems to be a cross between Howard Stern and Jerry Lewis (obviously not the real Jerry, but the comedic characters he played). Arturo never stops with his antics, each antic seemingly eclipsing the one before it with its stupidity and insanity. There are more than a half dozen scenes in the novel which had me actually keeling over with laughter. Of course, not everyone shares my strange sense of humor. If you are the self-effacing, not too serious type, then you will probably love this guy. This is my third book of his, and so far my favorite. I may not like him as much as Bukowski, but I am really enjoy the majority of his writing and will continue to read more of his work. Like Hank, Fante grows on you, like it or not.

Fante definitely isn't going to be everyone's favorite dish. However, love him or hate him there is definitely no denying this guy was a true original. He was Bukowski's hero (he actually referred to him as 'God') and it is overtly clear after reading one page of Fante where Buke drew his inspiration. If you are a true fan of Hank's, then you positively must read this man. Most of his fans and critics agree that this is one of his better novels. I give it four and a half stars.

Bukowski claims Fante as one of his favorites. It's not difficult to see why. This is a young man's coming-of-age story in Los Angeles circa 1930.

Very funny and easy to read.

Many Fante fans will vehemently disagree that this is his best work. That is probably because they are really Bukowski fans, and Bukowski liked Ask the Dust better. Of course, many Buk fans are as conformist as anyone, and they now follow him blindly as Pat Boone fans probably do Mr. Boone. These are the same people who think Buk could do no wrong (then what was up with Women?). I say that as a huge Buk fan, but as somebody who is not looking for a hero, but a good writer (which is what Buk was).

Ask the Dust is great, and it has a better ending, but Dreams of Bunker Hill is Fante's best work. Here he lays bare the soul of a struggling writer in a world that does not care one bit for talented people. He gets a glimpse into the sophistication of Hollywood, and sees it for its falsity. The scene where he confronts Sinclair Lewis had me laughing for hours. And the strange relationship he has with his landlady is Fante at his best: love can be such a strange thing that it is wonderful.

Fante should get much more academic notice, as should his follower Buk. What could help would be to realize that he, like Buk, was not always a "party-down wild man." Fante, like Buk, was VERY well steeped in the classics. He was incredibly widely read: from Anderson to Schopenhaur. Writing was hard work to him. For all the posers out there who want to be writers without hard work, please stop using Fante (and Buk's) name in vain. He's just better than you are or will be. When you realize his stuff please realize that the ease with which it reads is related to the difficulty with which it was composed.

I'm a big fan of Fante's, and I would only like to clear up one point that the other reviewers have given conflicting information on. Although about Fante's alter ego in his youth, this book WAS dictated to Fante's wife, Joyce, when he was ill and blind with diabetes. It is, as far as I know, the last thing he wrote before he died.

I am pretty sure the previous reviewer is mistaken about when this book was written. It is my understanding that Fante dictated it to his wife near the end of his life, after he had lost his sight to diabetes. Regardless, I loved it. This was the first Fante I read and it made me want to read everything I could get my hands on.

I'm not suggesting it's his best -- I think "Ask the Dust" holds that honor -- but for my money "Dreams from Bunker Hill" is a damned fine book.

This is a great short novel. You can read it in one go. The streets of Los Angeles come alive in Fante's novels. I read this one summer in my early twenties. Every time I re-read I go back there. That's Fante's gift. He makes you feel young again. What's incredible is that he wrote this at the end of his life, his last gasp. Fante works some kind of miracle with the written word. Read him and see if you can work out how.

I have read all of the Fante books and this is by far my favorite! If you love Bukowski, this is a must! Right from the Bukowski school!

Written when Fante was a young man, this will probably only be interesting to the Fante compleatist.

It's certainly well written, and it's not that I hated it, but...It's just such a male book that it feels hard to connect to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some crazed feminist. More so, most of the books in my library were written by men. But most of them don't make me feel excluded. I think that a good book is universal. This isn't.