John Fante's Ask the Dust

This volume assembles for the first time a staggering multiplicity of reflections and readings of John Fante's 1939 classic, Ask the Dust, a true testament to the work's present and future impact.
The contributors to this work-writers, critics, fans, scholars, screenwriters, directors, and others-analyze the provocative set of diaspora tensions informing Fante's masterpiece that distinguish it from those accounts of earlier East Coast migrations and minglings. A must-read for aficionados of L.A. fiction and new migration literature, John Fante's "Ask the Dust": A Joining of Voices and Views is destined for landmark status as the first volume of Fante studies to reveal the novel's evolving intertextualities and intersectionalities.
Contributors: Miriam Amico, Charles Bukowski, Stephen Cooper, Giovanna DiLello, John Fante, Valerio Ferme, Teresa Fiore, Daniel Gardner, Philippe Garnier, Robert Guffey, Ryan Holiday, Jan Louter, Chiara Mazzucchelli, Meagan Meylor, J'aime Morrison, Nathan Rabin, Alan Rifkin, Suzanne Manizza Roszak, Danny Shain, Robert Towne, Joel Williams

“John Fante's 'Ask the Dust' confirms the extent to which Fante's work has influenced and inspired the work of so many others through the decades and to this day. He does belong on the big bookshelf of accomplished American authors, neatly tucked in before Faulkner and followed by the likes of Fitzgerald and Frost.”

A decisive contribution to the critical understanding and (re)assessment of John Fante's Ask the Dust, a novel that, while appreciated by many, has never really made it into the canon. These essays effectively demonstrate the theoretical and thematic currency of the novel for today's critics and scholars, promising to become a landmark in the landscape of Fante scholarship.---Donatella Izzo, Università degli studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"
John Fante's 'Ask the Dust' confirms the extent to which Fante's work has influenced and inspired the work of so many others through the decades and to this day. He does belong on the big bookshelf of accomplished American authors, neatly tucked in before Faulkner and followed by the likes of Fitzgerald and Frost.-- "Enthymema"
John Fante's Ask the Dust communicates the importance of the novel by giving space to both scholarly essays and nonacademic testimonies, which investigate the role the book has played in the development of the authors here gathered. Rather than a thorough work of academic inquiry, the present volume is therefore an homage to the writer, as the editors themselves declare.-- "Iperstoria"

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.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.