Jim Fante remembers trips to Angels Flight with his father John Fante. “I was so young I didn’t even know of Ask the Dust,” he said. Fante once lived along the hill, as did his alter ego, Arturo Bandini, the narrator of Ask the Dust, and both spent their meager incomes buying cheap oranges for subsistence. Father and son traveled to Grand Central Market, too, to buy fruit, Jim remembered. Read more about him below.
Q. What do you wake up to?
A. Silence. I live in Thousand Oaks and we back to open space. The most I’ll hear is the rustling of squirrels.
Q. What’s your favorite word?
A. Conviction.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. Motown.
Q. What do you find beautiful?
A. I was just up in Oregon along the coast, which people say looks like Scotland. I can’t imagine anything more beautiful.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. A bus driver.
Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. A very conscientious man, a good father.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Italy.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Gin and tonic.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Golf clubs.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Getting on a train with my dad. We would ride the trains downtown.
Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. To exercise.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you’d most love to have a beer with?
A. Magic Johnson.
To read more about Fante’s panel on his father, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.