Brotherhood of the Grape - Softcover

Fante, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553119397 ISBN 13: 9780553119398

Publisher: Bantam USA, 1978

Synopsis

Nick Molise, stonemason, adulterer and heavy drinker, is father to four grown-up children - and not a good father. He's getting old and his health is deteriorating, and yet, he insists on taking on a final stonemasonry job for a friend and is hell-bent on dragging his eldest, estranged son Henry along for a final attempt at some father-son bonding. After completing the shoddy job - which involves consumption of a great deal of wine and a near-death-experience, Henry finally comes to terms with his father's tyranny and imminent demise - and ultimately appreciates his family, in spite of their numerous flaws. A rich Italian-American family drama, painfully sad and yet funny; this book is an American classic.

About this title

Review:

This is just as full of life as John Fante's novel of that title which came out - can it be - 25 years ago. . . full of life and death in affectionate synch and guessably based on a father who might have been the cussin' image of Nicholas Molise, an old cock, a fighting cock of 76. Actually his wife has accused him of adultery and put him in the slammer which he refuses to leave, unvindicated. Nick has always been a tyrannical, vociferous "dirty old goat" - getting sloshed at the Cafe Roma and gambling all he earns as a stonemason, and more. Now he wants his oldest son Henry (the narrator, a writer) to come with him on one last job up in the mountains building a smokehouse; all his apprentices have long since died or defected. Henry can't say no but it will be the end of Nick who has a diabetic coma, splits the hospital, goes to a winery, and dies as he lived. In Chianti veritas, tears and a warm glow. (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Back Cover:

"Fante's maturest, indeed, wisest work."
Steve Cooper, from Full of Life, A Biography of John Fante

Henry Molise, a 50-year-old successful writer, returns to the family home to help with the latest drama; his elderly parents want to divorce. Henry's tyrannical, bricklaying father, Nick, despite being weakened by age and alcoholism, can still strike fear into the hearts of his sons. His mother, ill and devoutly Catholic, still has the power both to comfort and confuse her children.

Nick has been offered a some well-paid work to build a somkehouse in the hills, and Henry, realising this is the last chance for father and son to understand each other, turns his back on his publisher's demands and on the last 30 years of estrangement from his childhood to help the old man.

The Brotherhood of the Grape is typical of Fante's novels, it's autobiographical, and brimming with love, death, violence and religion. Writing with great passion Fante powerfully hits home the damage family can wreak upon us all.

"Fante was capable of expressing thought and experience with an honesty that was as intimate as it was evocative, and as magical as it was true." Time Out (on Ask the Dust)

"The late John Fante is oneof the great unheralded voices in American fiction." The Face

Cover design by James Hutcheson

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam USA
• Publication date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0553119397
• ISBN 13: 9780553119398
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192