By Ben Meyers | Copyright 2003, 3 A.M. Magazine. All rights reserved.

Dan Fante knows a thing or two about surviving America. If you like your prose vodka-soaked, soulful and bleeding on the page, then Fante is your man. Born and raised in California, his father John was one of the finest writers of the twentieth century, yet poor sales begrudgingly forced him into working as a screeenwriter during Hollywood's cinematic boom-time. By the time of his death in the early 1980's, Fante Sr's literary career was unknown to everyone but the die-hards, including one Charles Bukowski who, in his novel "Women" declared Fante his God and set about resurrecting his career. Dan Fante is, in my opinion, an even finer writer than his father.