Dan Fante is the author of three pitch-perfect novels (the Bruno Dante trilogy ‘Chump Change’, ‘Spitting Off Tall Buildings’ and ‘Mooch’), a critically acclaimed play (‘The Closer’), a soulful volume of poetry (‘A Gin Pissing, Raw Meat, Duel Carburator V8 Son-Of-A-Bitch from Los Angeles’) and now the short story collection ‘Corksucker’. If you haven’t read Fante yet I’ll say this:

I know what it’s like to be told that somebody is the greatest writer you have never read, then you put down money for a book which turns out to be mediocre at best and you can’t figure who shafted you more – the author or the asshole who sold you on the author.

Dan Fante is the greatest author you have never read.

No bullshit. If you buy any of his books and you think I am talking garbage, contact me via this website and I’ll send you the goddamn money myself. Fante’s writing is as perfectly executed, honest and brilliant as Selby firing on all cylinders, Bukowski before he got complacent, Hemingway before he got sucked into his own self-image. I’m not kidding – in my personal canon of greatest American writers Dan Fante is the ONLY contemporary writer. I suppose that statement is as much an indictment of the state of writing in America as it is of Dan Fante’s brilliance.

I found Dan Fante’s writing while my wife and I were living in a filthy, falling down place in Dalston, bursting with cockroaches, mice and exposed wiring. I was coming off of methadone in preparation for the birth of our daughter, Nico. Again I was wondering where it had all gone, and what kind of idiot I was for allowing myself to be here, starting this whole painstaking process of recovery all over again. I was a terminal fool, again without a career to speak of, and no real way of explaining where the last five years disappeared to. I wanted to write, I knew that, but I was so disgusted with every new book that I read that I honestly believed that the form was dead. What was the point? People obviously wanted to read garbage: all of my favourite writers were dead or past their prime and no-one was filling their places. I didn’t want to write clever books about clever people doing clever things – I wanted to write about real life. But this was a new century, and no-one was interested in real life anymore.

Then I picked up a copy of ‘Chump Change’ at a book store I used to frequent in Soho. I took a chance on it – it looked pretty attractive, and although I knew that the fact that Dan’s father was John Fante was no guarantee that Dan would have IT, I took a chance.

‘Chump Change’ completely fucked me up. I read it in one sitting. It made me forget the screaming in my bones and my head for three hours. It gave me a sense of hope, despite being a book that on the surface is filled with utter hopelessness. That night I dug out my copy of ‘Ask The Dust,’ intrigued to read it with the new perspective on its author that ‘Chump Change had given me.’ The revelations in ‘Chump Change’ added an even more melancholy air to the novel. The next day I picked up ‘Spitting Off Tall Buildings’ and ‘Mooch’, and I was hooked. I proceeded to tell everyone who would listen about these books. The people who did pick up copies, like me, all went on to read all three in little time. The people who didn’t – well, fuck ‘em. They missed out.

To cut a long story short I stopped fucking around, I got clean and I completed my book. My daughter Nico is 20 months old and my book is out in January. I recently started a correspondence with Dan which resulted in me getting a pre-release copy of his new short story collection ‘Corksucker’ (which I reviewed here on the site), and the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his work and life for the site.

Tell me a little about the publication histories of your books. Were all three of the Bruno Dante books written before either found a publisher or did initial publication come first?

‘Chump Change’ went to at least 40 American publishers. Not one would piss on it. But the French took it right away. Then a friend of mine, a French singer named Elinor Blake (not her stage name) sent the American ms. to a guy named Billy Childish in England. Billy liked the book a lot and sent it to his American publisher Sun Dog Press in Michigan. That process took about five years. Then Canongate in Scotland read the other two manuscripts and offered me a three-book deal. Suddenly I was able to pay up all my back rent and put gas in my old Pontiac.

Is there a distinct line that separates Bruno Dante and Dan Fante?

Sure. Bruno is a character in fiction...As the writer Dan Fante I manipulate my own personal history. It's like Jazz as opposed to Country.

One subject that you steer clear of in your books is the subject of 'recovery.' There is never a 'eureka' moment where Bruno Dante decides to try and stop drinking. Was that intentional?

Certainly. To the writer everything left in or out is deliberate. A conscious act. In the Bruno Dante books I want the reader to see himself or herself on the page, to experience the process of redemption and despair, love and hate, in themselves. I'm not trying to save anybody; I'm trying to point out the road signs.

Do you subscribe to the notion that writing is a form of therapy? I know that for me writing some of the ugliest moments of my life down helped me to come to terms with those moments and move on.... did you have a similar experience?

Writing has been cathartic for me. Somerset Maugham once said, “if you want to exorcise a demon, write about it.” ‘Chump Change’ helped me resolve my relationship with my father and John Fante was truly a magnificent and difficult son of a bitch.

What do you think the writer’s role in modern America is?

On the face of it the answer is simple; to entertain. To clink the cash register. American editors are not looking for catharsis or soul fiction, they are searching for the next Stephen King. Read the book reviews in The New York Times. What passes for fiction is ninety percent drivel. Inbred, self serving, passionless, mediocrity. They do their best to ignore writers like me. Writers with balls.

Why do you think you have found so much more respect and garnered so many more book sales in Europe as opposed to the US? And does this lack of recognition bother you?

Of course it bothers me. I'd like to earn a living at what I am passionate about. And I'd like to do it in my own country. It is my view that Europeans still value and appreciate first person narrative. American editors will never read past the first paragraph when they see a book like ‘Chump Change’ arrive in the mail.

In the new book, 'Corksucker,' you are writing short stories as opposed to full length narratives. Did you enjoy the freedom this gave you? Or do you think that that the short story is a tougher discipline?

I wanted to combine a book of short stories and not be restricted by any particular theme or resolution. Writing short fiction is great fun. Most of the stories in ‘Corksucker’ are based on actual incidents.

Do you consider yourself a poet first and foremost, or a writer of prose who also writes poetry? Do you enjoy writing one more than the other?

The form I have the most fun with is the play. The dramatic form. I really enjoy what happens when two characters go at each other. Of almost equal enjoyment for me is the poetic form. In a poem I allow myself to have a beginning middle and end in one page. Bing. Pow. Crunch. When I get a poem right it feels like perfection.

What's going on with your play, 'The Closer'? I was in London when it came out and so never had a chance to see it, but I read the fantastic reviews it earned. You did mention to me previously that it may be coming to New York. What's the latest?

Philip Seymour Hoffman's theater group in New York is called The Labyrinth. They are considering ‘The Closer’ for production now. And The Odyssey Theater here in L.A. is considering a production of my play about John Fante called, ‘Don Giovanni.’

Has being the son of a great and widely (if belatedly) respected author helped or hinder you as a writer?

Hey, being someone's son can grease you through the front door once in a while - it helped me in France - but there'd better be a lot more in your bag of tricks if you want to stay on the book shelves. My father and I are very different writers. He never tried poetry for instance, nor did he write any drama. Pop would have been a great playwright. Blistering. Way fucking cool. His film dialogue is amazing.

How did the movie 'Mooch' come about? I read online that you co-wrote the script with Danny DeVito. Writing is usually a pretty solitary pursuit, so how did you find the experience of creating a screenplay with someone else?

I wrote ‘Mooch’ - the screenplay - with Danny De Vito. A nice guy. Easy to work with. We'd send pages back and fourth over the net until we were done. We met a few times to give each other notes, and that was that. But of course everything you write in a Hollywood move script is semi-final. The important thing - the vital component - is to always be willing to reevaluate. And to remember that the attempted murder of these moron cocksuckers is never really a useful solution.

Did you feel any trepidation going to work on the film? In ‘Chump Change’ you frequently expressed the opinion that your fathers involvement with film took a real toll upon him as a writer of novels.... did you feel in any way that you were dancing with the devil by getting involved with the movie industry?

No. In fact I've come to realize that movies sell books. If you're a writer like me, your aim is to sell your work. To be read. To be in people's heads. The more people who see a movie of ‘Mooch’ or ‘Chump Change,’ the more who will buy the real thing - the books. That's all that matters.

Would you mind talking a little about why and when you stopped drinking? Also, in the period when you were drinking heavily what was your writing output? Did you need to be sober to write with the clarity needed to complete your prose and poetry, or does some of the published material originate from that period?

I've been sober nearly nineteen years. I stopped drinking when I was an inch from death. I'm still not sure why - the Gods probably. No writer - I repeat - no writer can write anything that is worthwhile while drunk. It's never been done. The great boozers were all sober (at least while they were writing) when they knocked out their best stuff. Bukowski could fake a poem or two while drunk but all his best stuff was written sober.

Are there any current authors who you like? Who are they?

I recommend Dan Fante. After Dan Fante I like a horror guy named David Martin. I also like some of Harry Crews. Just some. But most of contemporary fiction - American fiction anyway - is unmitigated, unfiltered sewage.

What is the writing process like for you? In the short story 'Mae West' from Corksucker, you describe undergoing hypnotherapy to help you stop drinking. You go on to describe how the hypnotherapy indeed begins to work, but how you no longer have the drive to write without the rage that fuels your work. Is rage still the main force behind your writing? How have you found a way to tap into that while still retaining your sanity?

The passion has never left me. I live as two people - myself, Dan Fante, and Bruno Dante or Mickey Di Salvo, or whoever I say I am in one of my books. I can tap that Bruno character any time I need to. He lives inside me like a quiet, simmering pool of magma. Years ago I stopped feeding him with booze and he was kind enough to stop trying to kill me. That's our truce.

Finally, what's next for you? Without wanting to sound like a kiss ass, you've proved yourself to be one of the only great American novelists out there with the Bruno Dante trilogy, you've written a highly acclaimed play, a fantastic book of poetry and a short story collection that kicked the shit out of me. What will you be turning your attentions to next?

At the moment I'm writing screenplays for all my books. Burning Shore Press - anthrobert@earthlink.net - in Long Beach, CA, will publish ‘The Closer’ and my other favorite full-length play ‘Don Giovanni’ as a trade paperback this fall. ‘Coksucker’ will be published by Sun Dog Press here in America this fall. Maybe after I finish the screenplays I'll do another book of poems. More and more I've come to enjoy that expression form.

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Tony O'Neill is 26 years old. In a previous life he played keyboards for bands and artists such as Kenickie, Marc Almond and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. After moving to Los Angeles he also became a heroin addict, crack fiend and a speedfreak. He started writing about his experiences on the periphery of the Hollywood Dream and has been writing ever since. His autiobiographical novel 'Out Of Body' is due to be published in the US and Canada by Contemporary Press in December 2005. He lives in New York where he works as a labourer and writes. To read a selection of Tony's fiction and poetry on The New Review section of this site, click here.

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© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.