The Brotherhood of the Grape - Softcover

Fante, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0876857268 ISBN 13: 9780876857267

Publisher: Ecco, 2002

Synopsis

Henry Molise, a 50 year old, successful writer, returns to the family home to help with the latest drama; his aging parents want to divorce. Henry's tyrannical, brick laying father, Nick, though weak and alcoholic, can still strike fear into the hearts of his sons. His mother, though ill and devout to her Catholicism, still has the power to comfort and confuse her children. This is typical of Fante's novels, it's autobiographical, and brimming with love, death, violence and religion. Writing with great passion Fante powerfully hits home the damage family can wreck upon us all.

About this title

About the Author:

John Fante began writing in 1929 and published his first short story in 1932. His first novel, Wait Until Spring, Bandini, was published in 1938 and was the first of his Arturo Bandini series of novels, which also include The Road to Los Angeles and Ask the Dust. A prolific screenwriter, he was stricken with diabetes in 1955. Complications from the disease brought about his blindness in 1978 and, within two years, the amputation of both legs. He continued to write by dictation to his wife, Joyce, and published Dreams from Bunker Hill, the final installment of the Arturo Bandini series, in 1982. He died on May 8, 1983, at the age of seventy-four.

Review:

This is just as full of life as John Fante's novel of that title which came out - can it be - 25 years ago. . . full of life and death in affectionate synch and guessably based on a father who might have been the cussin' image of Nicholas Molise, an old cock, a fighting cock of 76. Actually his wife has accused him of adultery and put him in the slammer which he refuses to leave, unvindicated. Nick has always been a tyrannical, vociferous "dirty old goat" - getting sloshed at the Cafe Roma and gambling all he earns as a stonemason, and more. Now he wants his oldest son Henry (the narrator, a writer) to come with him on one last job up in the mountains building a smokehouse; all his apprentices have long since died or defected. Henry can't say no but it will be the end of Nick who has a diabetic coma, splits the hospital, goes to a winery, and dies as he lived. In Chianti veritas, tears and a warm glow. (Kirkus Reviews)

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0876857268
• ISBN 13: 9780876857267
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192