1933 Was a Bad Year

Having not heard the name John Fante before he was mentioned by a comedian on Instagram, I ordered this book on the strength of its title. Depression era fiction — Ironweed comes to mind — appeals to me because it heightens the stakes for the characters. Fante's short novel is about a 17-year-old Italian-American living in Colorado in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains whose plans for glory center on his left pitching arm, or the Arm as he calls it. The family is poor, with a bricklayer father who is out of work and hustles pool to get by, a worn-out devout Catholic mother, a manaical grandmother, and some siblings. What Fante does so well, using a sharp but not showoffy style, is take these absolutely ordinary people and infuse them with a spark of the universal.