SOURCE: Davenport, Basil. “Toscana Saga.” Saturday Review of Literature 22 (29 September 1940): 18.

In the following review, Davenport finds the stories in Dago Red to be in the same vein as the subject matter and tone of Fante's novel, Wait until Spring, Bandini.

John Fante will be remembered for his Wait until Spring, Bandini, a novel about a family of Italian-Americans in Denver, evidently drawn from the author's own childhood experiences. The present volume of short stories [Dago Red] is almost entirely made up of pieces cut from the same bolt. Almost the only exception is the last piece, “Hail Mary,” the reflections and recollections of a struggling young author who is behind with his rent; and that, in its self-dramatization, self-pity, and its touches of light-headedness suggest that in it Mr. Fante was modelling himself on Mr. William Saroyan—a dangerous exemplar for any one with less than the vitality...