Author Dan Fante almost lightens up about LA

Anyone who understands LA literature even a little bit knows that this region produces angry writers. From Raymond Chandler to Charles Bukowski, our authors have burned with a self-possessed rage that is unparalleled.

Perhaps the angriest, though, is Dan Fante (yes, the son of writer John Fante). Through novels such as Chump Change and Mooch, and plays and volumes of poetry and short stories, he has howled at the misdeeds, corruption and general mean-spiritedness of this place. 

Until now, that is. Kissed by a Fat Waitress, his new volume of poetry, surprisingly finds Fante in a place that could almost be described as happy.

This is not to say that he’s lost his edge—in many of these poems Fante still lowers the boom on such deserving targets as the bad women of his past, Hollywood producers, fame and his own long list of alcohol-laced misdeeds.

However, nestled amongst these missives are amazingly tender poems to loved ones, such as his wife and young son. Perhaps the most effective of these poems, though, are those addressing the loss of Nick Fante, Dan Fante’s late brother, who drank himself to death in the early 1990s. In an excerpt from one, he writes: 

“And all the love and all the lies of our friendship/the years of our days and nights together/have/devolved/to this/last careless reckless ride in Hollywood . . . ”

Adding to this book’s diverse charms are heartfelt homages to writers like Jack Kerouac and Hubert Selby Jr., bittersweet pieces about Dan Fante’s own belated celebrity status in Europe, and even an anti-Iraq war poem—a true rarity for a writer who almost never discusses politics directly.

In the end, it’s hard to view Kissed by a Fat Waitress as anything less than a major success, as well as an important addition to the canon of Southern California writing. Who would have guessed that this region ultimately has a heart of gold and that Dan Fante, one of its angriest and formerly most self-destructive sons, would be the one to find it?

KISSED BY A FAT WAITRESS BY DAN FANTE  SOFTCOVER | 120 PGS | SUNDOGPRESS.NET | AMAZON.COM | $14.95

Tags: art, Books, dan fante, john fante, Long Beach