«(…)Can you briefly summarize your essay on Fante?
The essay on Fante consists of five chapters. The names of the chapters -to introduce the reader- are: «The Big Canyon,» «Road to daydreams,» «Between fog and dust,» «The oldest grapes,» and «West of the Italian-American working-class culture.» The work is not a biography -as we understand genre- it´s an interpretative essay on his work. Chesterton said that the Stevenson´s heart could only be found in Treasure Island. And John´s novels are based on his own life, on his experience: he only wrote about he knew.
If we read John´s work, side to side, we find several topics: the problem of chilhood and growth, family relationships, the passage of an Italian culture to an American culture, and others, of course. But these topics can summarize in just one topic, that is, being just one (if we make a tour diachronic and synchronic in the course of his work). And the book´s purpose is to respond to link each of these elements, and give an explanation.
To perform such a task, of course, one should and can use certain tools. In this book, take on a important significance not only historians of American literature as Walter Allen, Cesare Pavese and Emory Elliot. Also thinkers as diverse as Marx, Ribot or Deleuze, literary and cultural critics like Bloom, Eagleton and Raymond Williams. And, of course, American clasics writers such as Emerson, Twain or Fitzgerald. (…)»
