The Road to Los Angeles

I gotta say, I'm a long time John Fante fan, but I hated this book -- and I've liked other Bandini books! This book was written in 1933, his first, but never published during his lifetime and I think I can understand why. It's too damn over the top! Of course, young Arturo Gabriel Bandini is pretentious, lazy, condescending, a communist, a pseudo-philospher, a wannabe writer, a complete schizo psychotic and a sociopath, so of course Fante is going to make him a semi-cartoon character. But he's SO nuts and so abrasive and so hateful and such a dick and so full of both self love and self loathing that it's enough to drive you insane while you read. I read most of this book, waiting and hoping for Bandini to come to some form of show more self-realization, some redemption, but virtually a few dozen pages from the end, I gave up. I was so disgusted with the character and I hated him so much, that I just didn't want to find out what happened to him. Jesus, he was one of the worst characters I've ever read in literature! He thinks he's an intellectual giant because he uses big words no one can understand and because he reads authors like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, whom he himself can't understand, but in reality, he's a moron and he proves it daily. And he is a woman hater and has a nasty violent streak, in addition to being a god-hating atheist. He pretends to be the world's best writer, but the writing sample Fante provides us is so laughably bad that you don't feel sorry for him; you feel scorn. He's just a world class dick and I'm truly sorry I wasted so much time on this book. Fortunately, it's actually not a big book, so I didn't waste an actually long time on it, but too much. Oh well. Live and learn. I've read three other Fante books recently that I've enjoyed, so this is an aberration. If you are into the Bandini saga, I guess read this, but if you're just reading some Fante, skip it because it's annoying as hell and it pretty much sucks. Not recommended. show less

This was John Fante’s first book (written in 1933 / rewritten in ‘36 / finally published in ‘85), and I was disappointed with it. The book is focused on a single character, and painfully for the reader, that character is too self-focused, angry, and violent, there’s not much positive or interesting about him other than he wants to be a writer. This man’s mind is highly overactive, firing off in all directions that he then fleshes out with a seemingly endless and tiring number of details. After adoring Ask the Dust (often held to be his best) and loving his short stories in The Wine of Youth, my love affair for everything Fante went cold with this book. Even though it’s a very short book, the single dimension of its character show more just wore me down. It wasn’t until the story’s end that this character started writing, and both his mother and sister told him that it stunk. Our sweet character, then punches out his sister and leaves for Los Angeles to write. The stories of how he quickly got fired from a number of jobs—all rather boring stories—made me think of the people who just don’t fit in anywhere and was overwhelmingly depressing. All of this may be entirely appropriate, as this was all during the Depression. I will definitely return to Fante, but never to this book, because when he’s good, he’s golden, but when he isn’t, he’s …. show less

I agree whole-heartedly with scottcholstad's review (below) - what a patchwork stream of adolescent and sociopathic nonsense - thank god the book was short because it took grit to get through to the end - the little boy who is portrayed in the book has no, absolutely no, redeeming qualities and simply needs a good ass kicking (for starters) - although written back in the 1930s the book accurately portrays the thinking and attitude of today's (2021) "the world owes me a living" children, meaning most everyone under the age of 30. I did not like Fante's other books either - despite the frequent comparisons he is not in a league with Charles Bukowski or Eric Hoffer.

It's patchy but much better than I expected. I had put off reading this because most Fante websites have negative reviews of it; however, it is very good in places.

The main character is a classic narcissistic personality which makes him not very likable and very annoying. The description of him (all show, not tell) is so spot on that it's scary.

There is a thumb biting homage to Hamsun's Hunger and a good description of a young writer's first attempt a a novel and his realization that it is junk.

The writing that Fante later perfected is obvious in places; in more places than not, and he uses the bad writing example to hammer (maybe a little heavy handedly) home his message on what good writing is.

It's unfortunate it wasn't edited and show more published while Fante was alive. It would have been a good first novel with a little editing. If you have any interest in Fante's writing, as shown in Ask the Dust, you should read this; probably read this after Ask the Dust. show less

Really solid novel from Fante. I like how repulsive Arturo is in this book and made sure to deliver with his interactions with other people. I am very curious as to what happens to Arturo from here!

One of the few Fante books I haven't read. It's good. Like the other Arturo Bandini books it's tense and tightly wound, the fantasies of a young writer ramming up against the indignities of real life.

If you have read all the other Fante books, you might as well read this one too. Otherwise just leave it be.