John Fante1999

John Fante, an important figure in the history of the Italian-American novel, is proving to be fascinating to contemporary readers. Richard Collins has caught Fante's spirit from several crucial angles: as an ethnic writer; as a comic novelist; as a serious writer struggling to remain so in Hollywood. Intelligent, balanced, informative, and empathetic, this book combines criticism with scholarship, and biography with history to make what Henry James would have called a perfect 'literary portrait,' for it gives life to an interesting subject.