Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante

Though his talent was all but ruined in her clutches, John Fante's muse was Los Angeles; he made his home in the faded downtown area, Bunker Hill, starving between menial Depression-era jobs, while writing story after story about the world he knew--full of poverty, hatred, & the madness of love. In the first comprehensive biography of Fante, Stephen Cooper untangles the enigma of one of the great outsider figures of twentieth-century literature, whose early novels & stories are lately classed with the best work of Nathanael West & Sherwood Anderson. "By bringing together [Fante's] life & work for the first time with such clarity of purpose, Cooper presents a remarkable gift to innumerable fans of Fante's work. Long live Arturo Bandini." --Phyllis Richardson, Los Angeles Times Book Review. "Fante would have loved this book, unless of course people wind up reading it instead of his fiction, in which case he'd have decked somebody. Those lucky souls whom this sad, lusty biography sends to his novels have a revelation in store. Discovering Fante is like tasting garlic for the first time." --David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle.Stephen Cooper is the author of 'Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante' with ISBN 9780865476059 and ISBN 0865476055.