Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante

Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante

Book 1 of The Saga of Arturo Bandini--John Fante's First Published Novel

"Of this I am sure: all the of the people of my writing life, all of my characters are to be found in this early work. Nothing of myself is there any more, only the memory of old bedrooms, and the sound of my mother's slippers walking to the kitchen." -from the Preface to this edition by John Fante

He came along, kicking the snow. Here was a disgusted man. His name was Svevo Bandini, and he lived three blocks down that street. He was cold and there were holes in his shoes. That morning he had patched the holes on the inside with pieces of cardboard from a macaroni box. The macaroni in that box was not paid for. He had thought of that as he placed the cardboard inside his shoes.

John Fante began writing in 1929, and his first short tale was published in 1932. Wait Till Spring, Bandini, his debut novel, was published in 1938 and is the first in the Arturo Bandini series, which also includes The Journey to Los Angeles and Ask the Dust. In 1955, he was diagnosed with diabetes after a long career as a screenwriter. In 1978, complications from the condition resulted in his blindness and, two years later, the amputation of both legs. In 1982, he released Dreams from Bunker Hill, the concluding volume of the Arturo Bandini series, by dictation to his wife, Joyce. At the age of seventy-four, he died on May 8, 1983.