1933 Was A Bad Year
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
1933 was a Bad Year is one of a number of short, powerful novels that John Fante wrote in the 1930s and 1940s, chronicling young, aspiring men trapped in dire economic circumstances. Dominic Molise, a 17-year-old from a poverty-stricken Italian-American family residing in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, dreams of becoming a major-league baseball player and, in the process, escaping his philandering father's attempts to lure him into the family bricklaying business. His problems are exacerbated when he becomes hopelessly infatuated with his best friend's icily beautiful elder sister.
Using tough, unsentimental, yet always lyrical, prose Fante beautifully evokes the internal emotional world of an adolescent--the wild fantasising, the nascent sexual feelings and the struggle between the urge to do what is desired and the duty to do what is morally right. But this is more than another coming-of-age tale. There is real spit and fire in Fante's finely judged sentences and a genuine anger at the crippling poverty that flattened so many lives and destroyed so many hopes during the Depression.
Like the novels of Charles Bukowski, who idolised Fante and whose praise helped to bring Fante's work to a wider audience, the writing here is so unerringly honest and the griminess of quotidian life so sharply conveyed that it is impossible not to empathise with these beleaguered characters. This is a short novel, but it displays more truths than most novels several times its length. --Jane Morris
Product Description
Trapped in a small town in 1933, 17-year-old Dominic yearns to fulfil his own dreams of becoming a sports hero. He struggles though, against the wishes of his Italian parents who want him to go into the family business. A story of class and an individual's struggle during hard times in America.
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First Sentence
It was a bad one, the Winter of 1933. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
It was a bad one, the Winter of 1933. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a beautiful, realistic book about a young man growing up with dreams that are confronted with and shattered by the real world. It tells about a period in a man's life in which everything starts to unfold - love, ambition - and yet becomes more complicating. Fante tells all this in a direct and simple way, with enough irony and humour to prevent the book from being depressing. A true American traditional!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the most alive books, both from an imagery standpoint and a spiritual one (and I don't mean spiritual in a religious way but it can be) that I have read. For a young writer who is trying to write from the heart, this novel is essential. A wonderful story of childhood and its dissipation into adulthood.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If I tell you that this story has been told before, don't let that put you off. This is a book that breaks your heart and it can do that because of Fante's talent as a writer. This was my first exposure to Fante and I haven't looked back. Every word has energy amd every line is thoughtful. It doesn't matter that you've heard the story before -- you've never heard it told like this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dimestore ascendancy
Fante holds your hand and gently places you on a rollercoaster of expectation. Then he gives the cart a big shove as you slide and glide into a scenic whirl of small town life,... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Dr. Delvis Memphistopheles
A massive theme in one tiny book
My first brush with Fante - and recommended to me on the basis of my fondness for Updike and Chandler. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mrs Gene Hunt
The best one-hour read around
He was practically the only writer Bukowski enjoyed; his son has become a powerhouse writer too; and John Fante was responsible for some of the 20th Century's most important... Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2002 by Scot Devine
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