A Gin-Pissing-Raw-Meat-Dual-Carburetor-V8-Son-Of-A-Bitch from Los Angeles: Collected Poems, 1983-2002

Rating:
Summary: in your face
Review: hold on to your chair... like other Dan Fante writings it's good ...real good. Cuts to the chase, leaves nothing out, no sugar coating just real down to earth "in your face" life reflections. Written in a straight forward manner, easy and flowing. I read the book in one sitting. It gives the feeling and energy like your driving down a loaded four lane highway going 140 mph!

Rating:
Summary: Like a bottle of fine liquer
Review: Wrapped in an elegant chocolate colored glossy book cover, like a bottle of a fine liquer, the contents of this book are deadly. I read these poems straight through, I never before read more than two poems in one sitting! Dan Fante's poems are pure dynamite, just like his books. In one poem, he writes that a book by his father cost over thirty bucks, "the real price for a true mad artist is nowhere near that cheap". Life for this " disgusting deviant diabolical dope fiend and alcoholic madman" was all worth it. Dan Fante's work brings new life and meaning to my own life, it is so alive, scary, sad, and funny. I love it, it gives energy to everything.

Rating:
Summary: recycling poems
Review: You read the first poem and you think it's nice, then you read the second and you think it's ok, then you read the third and you realise that Dan Fante can only write about his father, alcohol and women. His poems are not refreshing, as the book cover and the intros promise (Bukowski wrote about the same things). besides images from a few poems have been recycled in his plays and novels, or is it that lines from plays and novels are recycled to form fractured, meaningless poems? Perhaps Mr Fante should find himself a real job rather than trying to be a poet.