Fante's Brotherhood of the Grape is billed as his most mature work...because it is. It's a powerful piece of literature about a family and how there's always another chance to make a connection. What it creates in emotion and maturity it somewhat loses in the passion you'd get from a character like Arturo Bandini but you can see how every word is beautiful, carefully hand picked and perfect. There are echoes of 1933 Was A Bad Year and you can see the chapters that influenced Bukowski so greatly. The man was something truly special, the most important American writer since Henry James?
