SOURCE: Review of The Big Hunger: Stories 1932-1959, by John Fante. Publisher's Weekly 247, no. 13 (27 March 2000): 51.

In the following review, the anonymous critic finds The Big Hunger to be an uneven collection of Fante's short fiction.

Fante, who died in 1983, is receiving some belated recognition for novels like Ask the Dust and Wait Until Spring, Bandini. His biographer, Stephen Cooper, has unearthed 18 previously uncollected stories [collected in The Big Hunger] that Fante wrote over 27 years, ranging from derivative and self-indulgent juvenilia to intelligent and meaningful tales of the immigrant experience. “Prologue to Ask the Dust” is essentially a précis of the novel, displaying a savage energy and sense of immediacy. This and several other stories bring the Los Angeles of some 60 years ago to life. In the memorable “Mary Osaka, I Love You,” Filipino dishwasher Mingo Mateo falls in love with the daughter of his Japanese employer. Mingo's...