In her essay “Work,” Maria Laurino writes that “the educated Italian-American workforce prides itself on its success in escaping the earlier fate of a lifetime in construction, and many have transcended their working-class roots by entering law and business [ . . . ]. But at what cost have we forsaken the pleasure, intimacy, and skill of using hands and heart, or expressing a part of the self in one's work” (2000, 184–85). What if one's work were building with words rather than with stone; what if one constructed books instead of bridges? Near the Great Depression's end, four “classic” American novels arrived almost simultaneously: The Grapes of Wrath, Christ in Concrete, The Day of the Locust, and Ask the Dust. Teresa Fiore has noted that “Fante's books, whose distinctive feature is that of showcasing the struggles experienced by the writer in the writing process, [are]...
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