Fante

Dan Fante, son of the novelist John Fante, traces his family's story from the Italian hillsides to immigrant Colorado and on to Los Angeles, where his father fought for literary recognition and, despite publishing Ask the Dust, turned to Hollywood screenwriting for a steady income. The memoir follows Dan through a troubled childhood, work as a carnival barker and twelve years driving a taxi in New York, while both men wrestle with drink and rage, and John with crippling diabetes and a sense of failure. At 45 Dan took up his father's old typewriter to quiet his own mind. The book charts how a combative father and son in the end came back to loving one another.

Ryan Holiday listed it in his Best Book Recommendations of 2011.