Ask the Dust by John Fante (1939)

This is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls heavily in love with the elusive, mocking and unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until at last his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini neglects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.

Author: John Fante was born on April 8, 1909 in Devon, Colorado. He wrote about writing and the people and places where he lived and worked, which included Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, the Bunker Hill district of downtown Los Angeles, California, as well as various homes in Hollywood and Malibu. Diabetes cost him his eyesight and led to the amputation of both of his legs. He died in 1983.

My thoughts: This is a nice book which is easy to read. It made me want to read it again and, indeed, I have read it twice. I have many of John Fante’s books. The main character in this book is Bandini.  He encapsulates the entire history of an Italian immigrant childhood: the misery, the humiliation of the cheated mother and the beatings of the father. I've considered the possibility that Bandini is Fante, sitting in that dour Bunker Hill apartment, reflecting on a hard life of devastating failures punctuated by occasional successes. Bandini is a young man, among so many other aspiring writers. He only wrote a few books, leading a life in dingy hotel rooms and inspired by sensual love.