1933 Was a Bad Year - John Fante
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1933 Was a Bad Year - John Fante
- birdandthebear
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1933 Was A Bad Year by John Fante is the story of Dominic Molise, the seventeen year-old son of an Italian immigrant. When his father suggests that he continue the family brick laying business Dom begins to plan his escape from small town Colorado. He dreams of making it as a baseball player; a dream which acts as an escape from the poverty of reality. He plans to leave depression era Colorado to pursue his dream of hitting the big-time in California. Only one problem stands in his way, the fifty dollars he needs to make the trip.
Fante’s novella screams with the desperate desire of a teenage dream choked in small town America. Not only does Dom crave a life of spectacular success he also desperately wants to avoid becoming his father. The aim of escaping the working class trap that many immigrants fall into is often the objective of the second-generation immigrant. Dom identifies himself as American and therefore distances himself from his father and the old world of Europe. As a child of America Dom has different expectations of life and he plans to live rather than simply survive. Here the disparity of cultural expectation between Dom and his father becomes clear. Mr. Molise carries with him the baggage of the old world, the excepted convention that son will follow the footsteps of father.
Not only is Dom a dreamer born of poor parents in a small town, he is also embarking on adulthood during the Depression. His only friend is a middle class seventeen year-old named Kenny. Growing up as the son of a successful businessman Kenny struggles to identify with Dom’s financial difficulties; he seems especially unable to grasp that Dom cannot simply ask his father for the $50 he needs for the trip to California. The stark difference in the home life of the two boys further highlights Dom’s position as an outsider. He grasps firmly to the idealism of the American Dream, listing Italian-American ball players from similar disadvantaged backgrounds as himself as inspiration.
As I was reading this novella I couldn’t help but compare it to one of my favourite books, Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. Bukowski often cited Fante as his hero and there are clear comparisons between the two books especially in terms of writing style. If I’m completely honest I enjoyed both books immensely but Fante’s novella has an aching desperation that I find heartbreaking. The reader wills Dom to make it to California by any means necessary and to pursue his dream. Even if he is unsuccessful he has to have the opportunity to try.
Fante’s clean, pithy prose examines the immigrant experience against the backdrop of the worst financial crisis in history. Dom’s struggle is universal; however, he is a second generation immigrant in a country that promises certain ‘unalienable rights’ to its citizens; “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. In chasing his dreams of big league fame Dom is simply exercising his rights as an American.