John Fante is a novelist.
John Fante . He is best known for his semi-autobiographical novel Ask the Dust ( 1939 ) about the life of a struggling writer , Arturo Bandini , in Depression-era Los Angeles . It is widely considered the great Los Angeles novel and is one in a series of four novels , published between 1938 and 1985 , that are now collectively called `` The Bandini Quartet '' . Fante published five novels , one novella , and a short story collection .