Comments on: John Fante: Wait Until Spring, Bandini

By: Mr Douglas Anderson | Never Judge A Book By Its Cover… Unless It’s John Fante

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:52:08 +0000

[...] Image 1 – The Mookse and the Gripes [...]

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:56:35 +0000

It is true that buying Selvon is a lot harder than reading him, once you actually have the volumes. Which means you should order Moses Migrating the next time you are putting in an Amazon order (there don’t seem to be any versions available in the UK) but don’t read it until you have Moses Ascending. I am pretty sure that once you have read Lonely Londoners, you will be wanting all three.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:42:59 +0000

A word about Selvon, for Kevin and Max: I've ordered Lonely Londoners, and I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately, Moses Ascending was unavailable from the Book Depository. They're supposed to let me know when it comes in again.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:34:13 +0000

Much better than the much heralded Ask The Dust in my opinion.

Oh no, Seoman! I’m still looking forward to this one, and I had high hopes! Of course, I should also thank you for bringing my expectations down since I’m much more likely to enjoy it that way :).

By: Seoman

Seoman — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:27:03 +0000

Wait Until Spring Bandini is a wonderful novel. You’ve hit all the main points Trevor. Svevo’s pride and bitterness really come through. Also the ending really liked that. Much better than the much heralded Ask The Dust in my opinion.

By: Deucekindred

Deucekindred — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:55:48 +0000

Wait Until Spring Bandini is excellent! If you like that I suggest you try out Ask the Dust (which is his masterpiece) and the Road to Los Angeles (which actually has some bits of comedy.

Once you’re hooked………

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:26:25 +0000

No worries Trevor, my thoughts were fairly similar to yours as I recall.

I did forget to say, I second Kevin’s Selvon recommendation. Selvon was my big find of 2008, a much underated talent. I think you’d enjoy him.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:50:55 +0000

Ahh! Sorry for not including your link above Max. I remember seeing your review, but I didn’t read it (one of my common practices when I plan on reading a book presently). When I went back to linking the reviews, I missed yours. Thanks for including the link.

And now — to read your thoughts!

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:35:45 +0000

Marvellous isn’t it? I’m glad too that you tried it.

I wrote it up myself, here: http://pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/john-fante-wait-until-spring-bandini/

It definitely stands on its own, and the language is superb, I quite agree with your conclusions.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:04:19 +0000

Kerry, you won’t regret putting other things aside to read this!

And Kevin, thanks for encouraging me to read it — even if it took me a year. I also have some Stegners you recommended, and I hope it won’t take me as long to get to them, though I did get them a few months ago already! And I’ve also been very interested in Selvon’s trilogy since you reviewed it last year. Possibly the only thing preventing me from having it already — aside from the over-acquisition of books — is that the various publishers didn’t come together to produce an aesthetically pleasing “set.” But I got over that when I got started with Fante, so I must get over it for Selvon too.