John Fante's 1952 novel, the inspiration for the film starring Judy Holliday and Richard Conte If you have ever been a member of a family that has ever been "in a family way," this is your book. The narrator of this extravagant domestic comedy—also named John Fante—finds himself a homeowner and expectant father almost simultaneously. While his wife, Joyce, reads up on pregnancy and motherhood, John finds himself at loose ends as he struggles to deal with his quickly changing life. When termites destroy the kitchen floor, the Fante family must deal with yet another arrival—the narrator's father, the best bricklayer in California. Soon the crowded house feels a bit too confining for confinement, and there are still months to go before Baby Fante's arrival. Written with wit and a sharp observational eye, Full of Life is a one-of-a-kind novel about what it takes to grow a family. "Fante was my god." - Charles Bukowski " Full of Life first appeared in 1952…. And Fante was good. It was evident in every sentence; he meant to tell the truth." - The Los Angeles Times "Witty and charming—tender and extremely funny." - New York Herald Tribune In the definitive biography of John Fante, English and film studies professor Stephen Cooper explores the life of a man whose muse was Los Angeles. John Fante began writing in 1929 and published his first short story in 1932. His first novel, Wait Until Spring , Bandini, was published in 1938 and was the first of his Arturo Bandini series of novels, which also include The Road to Los Angeles and Ask the Dust . A prolific screenwriter, he was stricken with diabetes in 1955. Complications from the disease brought about his blindness in 1978 and, within two years, the amputation of both legs. He continued to write by dictation to his wife, Joyce, and published Dreams from Bunker Hill , the final installment of the Arturo Bandini series, in 1982. He died on May 8, 1983, at the age of seventy-four.