Since I read 1933 was a bad Year a few years back, Fante has been close to the top of my collect everything you can as you find them list. I must find a better name for that list, it's not the catchiest.
This is the last of his available novels, leaving me with a couple of short story collections to go. With this book I've read all of Fante's novels except for Bravo Burro (which is currently only available online in Italian for some reason)
He also wrote a screenplay for the film version of this book. At some point I will be tracking that down online.
This is easily the funniest of his books that I've read so far. His usual themes are all in place. the Italian parents who haven't moved into the twentieth century yet, the borderline abusive father, alcoholism and general dysfunctional family life.
The title refers to both his wife, who's heavily pregnant, and the floorboards of his kitchen, which are infested with termites. I do like a good multi-purpose punny title.
Our narrator - one John Fante - decides to save money on an exterminator and builder to replace the boards in his kitchen after they collapse under the weight of his pregnant wife, and calls on his father, a retired master builder in San Juan to do the work. After a couple of chapters featuring the most overdramatic mother in history, his father agrees and travels back to Los Angeles with him. Once there John finds himself increasingly ganged up on by his father and his wife.
John Fante's self insert in this book isn't quite as horrible as in previous of his books. The character of his father seems a lot more sympathetically drawn too, despite being something of a monster still.
The comedy is much broader and less cynical than the Bandini novels. His prose reads like free-flowing blank verse at times and is an absolute joy to read. there are sections where I stopped and reread paragraphs because they were so evocative. I still managed the book in a couple of hours. It is, after all, only 150 pages.
Like everything else I've read by Fante, it's brilliant, disarmingly honest, and a pleasure to read.
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