Ask the Dust
Struggling writer, Arturo Bandini, fights to scrape by, living in the Bunker Hill area of 1930's Los Angeles, as he is distracted from his work by his infatuation with Camilla Lopez, a local waitress who flirts with him by insulting him, uninterested in him treating her like a "Mexican princess". ... The Road to Los Angeles
This posthumously published novel was way ahead of its time when written in the 1930's. Its ethos still seems contemporary today. It introduces the character Arturo Bandini a young man struggling with his desire to be a great writer. Bandini is forced to work in a fishery cannery by his uncle to support his mother and sister. He is wretchedly alienated from his fellow workers and family by his Nietzchean self proclaimed belief that he is a writer.
... Wait Until Spring, Bandini
The story of the Bandini family over a bleak winter. Arturo Bandini later the protagonist in Ask the Dust and The Road to Los Angeles lives with his father, mother and brothers in bleak poverty. Whilst Arturo lies and steals from his mother and generally misbehaves at school he tries to woo the heart of Rosa a beautiful Italian classmate. His father (Svevo Bandini) unable to bricklay during the frozen winter drinks and gambles and finally gets some wo...