THE ARTURO BANDINI QUARTET. WAIT UNTIL SPRING, BANDINI. THE ROAD

This quartet of novels tell of Fante's fictional alter-ego Bandini, an impoverished young Italian-American escaping his suffocating home in Colorado for Depression-era Los Angeles. In the beginning, it is the triple weights of poverty, father and Church that Bandi ni struggles under but though the physical escape is complete, the psychological imprint continues as he comes to terms with love, d esire and the knowledge his talent may not be recognised.