More Raymond DeCapite

(Warning: If you haven’t yet read GO VERY HIGHLY 

TRIPPINGLY TO AND FRO and THE STRETCH RUN, 

there might be spoilers to the endings! I don’t want to 
ruin these beauties for you, so be careful.)

I’ve discovered a wonderful new author, Raymond DeCapite. 

I loved his novel A LOST KING and recently finished 

reading GO VERY HIGHLY TRIPPINGLY TO AND FRO. 

It’s an incredible book. I just knew that Roxie was going to 

be bad news for Andy, but didn’t expect how DeCapite 

would make him so much more. I loved all the excitement 

Roxie brings to the book, the talk of art and life in the midst 

of Andy’s cardwork-world. I love what a big heart Andy has, 

to everyone, especially his sort of bumbling kindness to Stash. 

It’s funny, sad and sweet all at once. DeCapite’s dialogue is 

outstanding, the writing true and poetic. And the way it 

worked out with Rachel was heartbreaking and real and 

really beautiful. I’m just amazed. I love the descriptions of 

Cleveland, still in clouds of factory smoke and the polluted 

river, the highway crushing through. All the little cafes, 

poolhalls and shops; it’s another world. I tell you, 

Raymond DeCapite is one of my favorite writers now! 

He’s the King.

I was also wondering if Raymond DeCapite ever met 

John Fante, a much-admired writer of similar talent 

and so I wrote to Raymond’s son. 

Michael DeCapite replied, “My father never met Fante, 

but Fante reviewed THE COMING OF FABRIZZE. 

Kind of a funny review, as though Fante didn't quite 

know what to make of the novel's approach, which is 

mythic rather than realistic…I love that scene with Stash 

too, it's mysterious and awkward and real. 

My father wrote a play from that book called 

WHERE THE TRAINS GO.”

 

Michael also clarified the timeline of his father’s writing: 

“FABRIZZE came out in hardcover, from David McKay, 

and then in paper from I-don't-remember. 

A LOST KING initially came out only from David McKay, 

in hardcover. That was all in 1960, 1961. 

He then had nothing published until PAT THE LION 

came out in Cleveland magazine, in 1976. 

I've always assumed he wrote Pat the Lion before 

ALL OUR FORMER FROLICS, but now I'm not sure. 

Then there was GO VERY HIGHLY TRIPPINGLY TO 

AND FRO. In the late '70s he started writing plays. 

He wrote at least four. He hadn't written anything 

in quite a while when he wrote THE STRETCH RUN, 

in the late '80s. After that, he wrote only a short story, 

‘The Boilermakers.’ KSU republished Fabrizze and 

A Lost King in 2010, but he knew, when he died, 

that the books were going to be reprinted.”

This past weekend I finished reading 

THE STRETCH RUN. He did it again! 

What a beautiful book. Old Jim and his friendship 

with Frank is the making of another wonderful 

DeCapite story. What an incredible ending too, 

with Frank all of a sudden running to his car 

to get one last look at Jim driving off. 

He catches up with him on the highway, 

but Jim raises his hand off the wheel, 

like a dream or a ghost, to wave him away, 

he’s done and going to another world. 

Lots of heartbreak and kindness and 

poetry in this book. DeCapite’s books 

just keep getting better for me. I’m really 

looking forward to reading THE COMING 

OF FABRIZZE. I ordered it through 

interlibrary loan a couple weeks ago and 

I’m still waiting. DeCapite’s books are 

real hard to find and that shocks me. 

He writes some of the most moving 

stories of America. I was wondering 

if he wrote poetry too, but of course 

he does, it’s in his novels, in his portraits 

of these people’s lives. I can’t get enough 

of it.

I wrote to his son again, to see if his father’s 

plays are available to read and got this reply:

“Though it would be nice to see them 

collected in a book, my father's plays 

have never been published, so you won't 

find them. But Fabrizze and A Lost King 

were reprinted by KSU Press in 2010, 

so there should still be some of those around. 

Before that, they were very hard to find. 

I like that haunted ending of Stretch Run 

a lot myself.”