Arturo Bandini
The young Italian American narrator who wants literary fame and romantic validation but repeatedly harms his relationships.
To become a famous writer and to make Camilla love him on terms that protect his pride.
The book
At a glance
- Aspiring writer
- Alta Loma Hotel, Los Angeles
- Italian American and Catholic
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeArturo lives in a cheap Los Angeles hotel with little money and one published short story. He treats editor J. C. Hackmuth’s acceptance letter as proof that fame is inevitable.
His confidence, prejudice, Catholic shame, loneliness, and hunger keep colliding. Because Arturo tells the story himself, the reader can hear both his swagger and the insecurity he tries to hide.
How the book draws them
- Cheap suit, grand ambitionHis appearance and circumstances are modest, but he imagines himself as an important future author.
- Fast self-dramatizerHe turns small successes and humiliations into evidence about his destiny.
- Insecure crueltyHe insults Camilla when attraction makes him vulnerable to rejection.
- Catholic shameReligious ideas shape his fear and idealization of sex.
- Real talentThe novel does not treat his ambition as pure fantasy; he writes publishable work.
- Unreliable self-portraitHis narration reveals motives and contradictions that he does not always recognize.
Arturo succeeds in publishing a novel and receives money for his writing. He cannot find Camilla after she disappears, and he throws a copy of his book toward the desert where she vanished.
If you like Ask the Dust
If you like John Fante
Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.
Ernest Hemingway
Author of The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast; his pared-down style, developed in 1920s Paris, became the most imitated in American prose.
View author
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
The doctor of the Paris slums who wrote the century's blackest, funniest novel — and changed the sound of French prose.
View author
Henry Miller
The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.
View author