ASK THE DUST

A second novel by the young Italian whose Wait Until Spring, Bandini received high praise, but only questionable sales. Fante writes of the same class as Pietro di Donato, but his style is less turgid, less impassioned, if more artistic. This is the story of the youngest Bandini, a writer, who goes to live in Los Angeles on the proceeds of his first story, and of his infatuation for the cheap, Mex waitress who finds him effete and ludicrous in his sensitivity. It is the story of have-nots, of racial cast-offs, of driftwood, and a moving one. Fante can write -- but this is not a big enough book to override a subject of limited appeal.