Customer Reviews

Wait Until Spring, Bandini

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Wait Until Spring, Bandini," by John Fante, is a novel about an Italian-American family living in Colorado. The story focuses on Arturo Bandini, a teenager who is the eldest of the family's three sons. His father, Svevo, is a bricklayer and an immigrant to the United States. Very Americanized, Arturo loves baseball and is tormented inside over his family's poverty.

Fante richly develops the relationships among the members of this often dysfunctional family. He also vividly evokes the experience of raising a family in poverty. Particularly interesting is Fante's portrayal of Roman Catholicism within the life of the Bandini family; religion is shown to be a very ambiguous force. There are some dark, even cruel episodes as the family's story unfolds.

As much as I enjoyed "Wait," I did not find it in the end to be as satisfying as the other Fante novels which I have read ("1933 Was a Bad Year" and "Full of Life"). Still, it's a powerful family story that is graced by Fante's excellent prose style.

Wait Until Spring, Bandini is a masterfully crafted novel by an amazingly underapreciated author. John Fante's name is like a password, those who know it cannot deny their bookishness. His writing is powerful and touching in its simplicity as he tells the tale of Aurturo Bandini, the son of Italian immigrants living in Colorodo. There are no wars, explosions, or black holes in this book. Its a tiny little story about one winter in a boy's life. Its power is in the realization that it provokes, the realization that growing up is something we all had to go through, that we've all made mistakes, and we're all human.

A poignant book, wonderfully written. In my opinion, this was his first and best novel. Even better than "Ask the dust", regarded as his masterpiece... A brilliant beginning for such a writer!

...and I read a lot of books...in my opinion Fante beats the pain of Dostoevski being as simple in words as Bukowski..."Wait until Spring, Bandini" is probably the best although one of the simplest books I read in my life...I think Fante deserves the Nobel post-mortum...Hamsun and Marquez got it, why not Fante?

The beginning of the Bandini Saga will wrench your heart. You find yourself, with the characters, trapped in this frustratingly inexpressible human condition. Fante manages, a triumphant champion, to articulate the unbelievable, ungraspable circumstance called life. John's a writer's writer, and a heavyweight at that.

I thought he described with insight the inner thoughts of city poor people. Almost thought he could have been one until I read his bio. I was a bit dissapointed with the ending (SPOILER) when his rich lover suddendly announced "you people are animals." I didn't get her sudden switch. Seemed too convienent, like he didn't know how to end it...unless I missed something.

It is rare that call any writer an artist, but with John Fante I feel no compunction whatsoever with using the word artist. While this work was his first and as such lacks the maturity, refinement and strength of voice that his later works possess, this particular book holds something that the others do not. That is the quintessential American experience. By that I mean the experience of being an immigrant trying to own their Americaness.

While the writing in this book shows sporadic flashes of brilliance, the message is more important than the words in this book. In a lot of ways this is the American story. It is the story of a poor Italian kid growing up in a world that doesn't want to accept him. This work has a powerful duality working inside of the characters. You have the proud but poor Italian father full of Machismo, and then you have the second generation immigrant who is just not quite American enough for his peers. The main character deals with the plight of poverty and alienation along with trying to fulfill traditional roles at home.

Fante becomes a great American writer. This isn't one of his masterpieces, but this is still an important work because it gives readers a glimpse into a uniquely American experience. The strength of this work lies in its ability to relate a world and experience that all Americans (except for Native Americans) have experienced at one point or another, and that is the immigrant experience. Fante does an amazing job giving readers a glimpse into that world.

Apparently this is Fante's first published book, but not the first book he wrote.

This was the second book by Fante that I read, the first being Ask the Dust. Wait Until Spring, Bandini, is a much different type of book than Ask the Dust. I bought it on Amazon expecting another book of adventures of a struggling writer, a bachelor, and ended up plunged into a very regional (Boulder, CO) very ethnic (Eyetalian), very Catholic novel.

All in all, it was a decent book, not earth-shaking, but charming. At times I felt hatred for Arturo's father and pity for poor Arturo. I don't know to what extent the books by Fante are autobiographical, but Wait Until Spring, Bandini certainly paints a pretty bleak portrait of the character's childhood. Growing up, an outsider, a little-man, wiser than his years.

At times the Italian connection grew annoying for me. "Rosa, I love you, Rosa. Rosa, you're my girl, Rosa." I can imagine the Godfather talking this way, hard to imagine the little Italian boy.

I would particularly recommend the book to anyone living in Boulder, CO. It would be interesting to contrast the story with whatever it is like in modern days.

This book is great. Fante not only shows the plight of poor immigrants, but how children deal with growing up... poor or otherwise. I love how he writes from the perspective of a adolescent but makes it art. All this without sounding too high-toned to make you think that this is the smartest kid in the history of the world.

This is a great book and I would read it before Ask the Dust. John Fante is a wonderful writer who paints lush pictures with simple sentences.

This book is great. Fante not only shows the plight of poor immigrants, but how children deal with growing up... poor or otherwise. I love how he writes from the perspective of a adolescent but makes it art. All this without sounding too high-toned to make you think that this is the smartest kid in the history of the world.

This is a great book and I would read it before Ask the Dust. John Fante is a wonderful writer who paints lush pictures with simple sentences.