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This collection gathers a diverse set of critical, personal, and artistic reflections on the trials and epiphanies of Fante's bio-fictive hero, Arturo Bandini, as he makes his way through the dust and dread of 1939 Los Angeles. As his quest for love and compassion turns to ethnic questioning and scorn, Fante's protagonist comes alive for new audiences who see now what Fante saw then: the "sad flower in the sand" that resides within us all.
List of contents
Introduction | 1
1. New Approaches to John Fante's Ask the DustFrom the Particular to the Universal: Vittorini's Italian
Adaptation of Ask the Dust | 15
Valerio FermeWhen Spirituality Ebbs and Flows: Religion and Diasporic
Alienation in
Ask the Dust | 43
Suzanne Manizza Roszak"Sad Flower in the Sand": Camilla Lopez and the Erasure
of Memory in
Ask the Dust | 58
Meagan Meylor"A Ramona in Reverse": Writing the Madness of the Spanish
Past in
Ask the Dust | 83
Daniel Gardner2. Sibling Arts: Ask the Dust in Dance, Music,the Graphic Novel, and FrenchDancing with the Dust: Translating Ask the Dust to the Stage | 111
J'aime MorrisonAsk the Lyrics: John Fante in Music | 127
Chiara MazzucchelliWatch Out or You'll End up in My Novel: The Lost World
of
Ask the Dust | 145
Robert GuffeyDon't Ask the French | 157
Philippe Garnier3. Ask the Dust and Its Effects: Readers and Writers RespondAmid the Dust | 167
Miriam AmicoThe Passion That Became a Festival | 177
Giovanna DiLelloI Had Bandini: Reading Ask the Dust in Prison | 193
Joel WilliamsWriting in the Dust | 201
Alan RifkinHow Hitler Nearly Destroyed the Great American Novel | 213
Ryan Holiday4. Ask the Dust and Its Due: Two Filmmakers and Bukowski Pay TributeInterview with Robert Towne | 237
Nathan RabinLetters from Los Angeles | 245
Jan Louter"My Dear Bukowski," "Hello John Fante": Preface to Ask the Dust | 261
John Fante and Charles Bukowski5. The Attic, the Archive, and BeyondFrom Family to Institutional Memory: A Conversation
with Stephen Cooper | 273
Teresa FiorePrelude to "Prologue to Ask the Dust" | 281
Stephen CooperGoodbye, Bunker Hill | 290
John FanteThe Road to John Fante's Los Angeles | 296
Stephen CooperAcknowledgments | 315
List of Contributors | 319
Bibliography | 325
Index | 331
About the author
Stephen Cooper (Edited By) Stephen Cooper is Professor of English, California State University, Long Beach. He is the author of Full of Life:
A Biography of John Fante (Angel City Press, 2005).
Clorinda Donato (Edited By) Clorinda Donato is the George L. Graziadio Chair of Italian Studies at California State University, Long Beach. She co-wrote
The "Encyclopédie Méthodique" in Spain.
