Customer Reviews

The Wine of Youth: Selected Stories of John Fante

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The Bell didn't Jar for Fante. He wrote like a man on fire, a fire of his own creation, a fire that lit up the sky and said 'Here I am! Take me or cover your eyes!' His stories are nearly flawless, all are great, and some are beyond great: they are burned into us and they are art. 'A Wife for Dino Rossi' is Everyman's Long Day's Journey. 'Home Sweet Home' and 'Hail Mary' drive the reader forward like a speeding locomotive - on Fire. Thank you, Black Sparrow Press for allowing us to warm our hearts and our minds. Thank you, Mr. Fante for never cooling; your sparks have lit a thousand flames.

The first time I've ever read Fante. I will be reading all his works from now on. He is reader freindly and makes you feel as if you're standing there with him as he tells his stories. If you're Catholic or been raised in that environment, you will cry laughing at some of his stories in this book. A fantastic writer that deserves more credit.

As one who reads a good deal of working class literature, I come to the work of John Fante with a sigh of relief. His stories are full of essential humanity, the beauty and laughter along with the pain. In his 1930's tales of American youth he finds the wine of the Mass, the fire of desire, and the love of family. Fante writes with passion and clarity. The bottle is full and waiting.-Larry Smith

As I'd seen him favorably linked to Charles Bukowski, both as an idol and an influence, several times, I decided to give this collection of short stories by John Fante a try. Without a doubt, there is a similarity between the two--but that's no guarantee that if you like one you'll like the other.

It took me several stories to begin to appreciate Fante; expecting Bukowski, I wasn't expecting the sweeter, more wistful, and decidedly "kinder" and "gentler" Fante. At times, he slips into a somewhat cloying sentimentality, but for the most part, Fante hits the right balance between warm-heartedness and cold reality. His characters are passionate, whether for good or not-so-good, flawed, but always sympathetic. His stories can tickle or sting, sometimes both.

He's not nearly as squalid as Bukowski, not drunken, not brawling, not womanizing at anything even approaching Buke's legendary literary rate. He's not nearly as pessimistic as Bukowski can be either--in fact, if anything, Fante reminds me more of Steinbeck in this regard. He retains the wider social conscience that Bukowski--struggling seemingly always as an individual against impossible odds--often lacks.

Perhaps this is so, in large part, because of Fante's childhood, rooted as it was in a family bound strongly by as much love as pathology. More than half of these stories deal with this childhood, undoubtedly in fictional form, but real enough to show you clearly where Fante is coming from. His usually autobiographical main character is a child of Italian descent growing up in a small town in Colorado. His father is an immigrant stonemason; his mother, a long-suffering angel. His brothers and a sister do what all siblings do: struggle against each other with an affection and loyalty hidden but always running beneath their open and often fierce rivalries.

Being a Catholic is also a major part of Fante's stories in this collection: as a student in a Catholic school and as a believer, both active and lapsed, in the Catholic theology--a spiritual template from which Fante derivates and deviates, but which colors virtually all his most important thoughts and emotions.

One must decide, ultimately, if these sorts of concerns are of interest--family, heritage, religion, childhood--because that's the territory in which these stories set up shop. One must also decide if he is willing to go it with an author who has not become entirely cynical and who still holds out hope and faith in values that have lost a lot of believers as we turn the corner into the 21st century.

For all his influence and all the admiration in which he is held by the later writer, Fante has not yet reached the pitch of darkness where Bukowski will eventually dwell. Beware, there is still light here.

Crisp. Subversive. Rebellious. Singular in character....There are many terrific stories here. Stories of abuse, childhood revery, the pangs of despised love, an immigrants song, notions of patricide, old Denver, old LA....I enjoyed the youthful attitude Fante gave me of his Catholic schooling. I loved the heart break of 'A Wife for Dino Rossi', 'The Dreamer,' and the final story 'Helen,...' Did I write I liked the heart break? I was moved by it. There are awe-shucks nuns, brutal fathers, multi-cultural football teams, crazy death rites/funerals, in essence a harshness that never seems to disengage it's realtionship with beauty. I look forward to more Fante.

The first story goes slow but as you get used to it, you ask for more. Wonderful name for a wonderful book.

This collection of Fante's short stories is worth having, but shop around for a copy under $35. There are some really great stories here, but don't go through this book all at once, as you'll probably become bored hearing about being an alter boy story after story.

Most of the writing here is early Fante stuff. Its great to see where Fante came from. Some of his later shorts are at the end, which is cool becasue you can see his progression.

While worth having, this book is not, what I'd call, essential.

There are some decent stories here. Almost all of them end abruptly. John writes of the joy and tragedy of life. His bandini series of novels are better. This book is more of an appetizer.