‘My Father's God’: John Fante, confession and Italianness

Abstract

This article examines John Fante's short story ‘My Father's God’ in order to show the importance of the Catholic religion for the integration of a typical family of Italian immigrants in the United States. Told by a first-person adult narrator who is recalling his father's resistance against the most rigid and orthodox forms of the Catholic church, ‘My Father's God’ is the representation of a model of masculine rebelliousness which, on the one hand, preserves all the characteristics of Italianness and, on the other, attempts to distance itself from it precisely in order to facilitate integration into the American social fabric. The narrative voice shows how the father (Nick) refuses to place religion (including confession) at the centre of his life. On closer inspection, this rebellious character is in perfect syntony with a gallery of male figures conceived by the author. From the point of view of its narrative structure, ‘My Father's God’ may be read on a metanarrative level as the story of another story (the confession written by Nick) which as it unfolds throws a significant light on John Fante's artistic awareness.