1933 Was a Bad Year - Hardcover
Trapped in a small, poverty-ridden town in 1933, under pressure from his father to go into the family business, seventeen-year-old Dominic Molise yearns to fulfill his own dreams.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
1933 was a Bad Year is one of a number of short, powerful novels that John Fante wrote in the 1930s and 1940s, chronicling young, aspiring men trapped in dire economic circumstances. Dominic Molise, a 17-year-old from a poverty-stricken Italian-American family residing in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, dreams of becoming a major-league baseball player and, in the process, escaping his philandering father's attempts to lure him into the family bricklaying business. His problems are exacerbated when he becomes hopelessly infatuated with his best friend's icily beautiful elder sister.
Review:
Using tough, unsentimental, yet always lyrical, prose Fante beautifully evokes the internal emotional world of an adolescent--the wild fantasising, the nascent sexual feelings and the struggle between the urge to do what is desired and the duty to do what is morally right. But this is more than another coming-of-age tale. There is real spit and fire in Fante's finely judged sentences and a genuine anger at the crippling poverty that flattened so many lives and destroyed so many hopes during the Depression.
Like the novels of Charles Bukowski, who idolised Fante and whose praise helped to bring Fante's work to a wider audience, the writing here is so unerringly honest and the griminess of quotidian life so sharply conveyed that it is impossible not to empathise with these beleaguered characters. This is a short novel, but it displays more truths than most novels several times its length. --Jane Morris
"Quirky, stylish and often funny." (The List)
"Fante's writing has a freshness that should shame many of today's scribblers." (Sunday Herald)
"Disappointment, disaffection, alienation, anomie and angst are the stock-in-trade of the cult writer, and John Fante is a fine example." (The Times)
"Fante had a major effect upon me. Fante was my god." (Charles Bukowski)
"Fante's writing has a freshness that should shame many of today's scribblers." (Sunday Herald)
"Disappointment, disaffection, alienation, anomie and angst are the stock-in-trade of the cult writer, and John Fante is a fine example." (The Times)
"Fante had a major effect upon me. Fante was my god." (Charles Bukowski)
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- PublisherBlack Sparrow Press,U.S.
- Publication date1986
- ISBN 10 0876856563
- ISBN 13 9780876856567
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages160
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1933 Was a Bad Year
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Ecco Press
(2003)
ISBN 10: 0876856563
ISBN 13: 9780876856567
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.5. Seller Inventory # G0876856563I3N00
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1933 WAS A BAD YEAR.
Published by
Black Sparrow Press
(1985)
ISBN 10: 0876856563
ISBN 13: 9780876856567
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Book Description Softcover, Broschiert. Trapped in a small, poverty-ridden town in 1933, under pressure from his father to go into the family business, seventeen year old Dominic Molise yearns to fulfill his own dreams. Zustand: Einband mit geringfügigen Gebrauchsspuren, insgesamt SEHR GUTER Zustand! 160 Seiten, wenige Abbildungen Englisch 200g. Seller Inventory # 3376
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1933 Was a Bad Year Fante, John
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Book Description Condition: 3. Brochà bon à tat .Contenu propre . 127 pages . 1985. PHOTOS SUR DEMANDE. Seller Inventory # Z50010KLW
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1933 WAS A BAD YEAR
Published by
Black Sparrow Press, Santa Barbara
(1988)
ISBN 10: 0876856563
ISBN 13: 9780876856567
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Hardcover
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Book Description 2nd Printing. 8vo. 129pp. Cloth spine with printed paper label. Hardcover in mylar jacket. A Fine copy. Seller Inventory # 97643
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1933 Was a Bad Year
Published by
Black Sparrow Press
(1985)
ISBN 10: 0876856563
ISBN 13: 9780876856567
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Hardcover
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fair. Hardcover. Illustrated paper over boards and red cloth spine. Title and copyright pages dated 1985. 127 pages. Limitation page in rear states that 400 cloth trade copies and 176 numbered deluxe copies were handbound in boards by Earle Gray. In fair condition. Appears to have been an ex-library copy, though someone has attempted to remove the pastedown on rear cover, tape on spine, and even written over the stamping on title page and copyright page. Covers have some rubbing, and paper along bottom edge is a bit chipped. Front gutter is cracked, but covers remain firmly attached and binding is secure. Pages are free of marks or tears (outside of previously mentioned ex-library). Overall, a fair reading copy of this scarce edition. Seller Inventory # 18-1421
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1933 Was a Bad Year.
Published by
Black Sparrow Press
(1985)
ISBN 10: 0876856563
ISBN 13: 9780876856567
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Hardcover
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Limited Edition. A Fine tight copy in a Near Fine acetate dust jacket. Th1/176 numbered copies. 1933 Was a Bad Year is a posthumously published novel by John Fante, who died in 1983. "1933" tells the story of Dominic Molise, a 17-year old Italian-American living in Colorado. While his father, an out-of-work bricklayer, seeks to alleviate the family's poverty by earning money at the pool tables, Dominic dreams of becoming a successful baseball player. "1933" is a superb slice of American life; both funny and sad. The book is full of vivid characters and memorable scenes and offers a pungent taste of the Italian-American experience as it explores such issues as the gulf between immigrant parents and their American-born children. Seller Inventory # 24817
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