Product Description

Bruno Dante is trying to straighten out selling printer supplies for a company ruled by a straight, militaristic disciplinarian. Unfortunately for Bruno, a former gangbanger, lap-dancer and crackhead called Jimmi turns up and soon he's back in free fall.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #681806 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From the Back Cover
Dan Fante's anti-hero, Bruno Dante is back. Ten months after the death of his legendary father, he has cleaned himself up, straightened out, and is back on the wagon.

Dante is also back on the mooch, selling computer supplies for an all-American straight guy in a company staffed with a motley crew of ex-addicts and alcoholics.

But when Orbit Computer Supplies hires the beautiful Jimmi Valiente, a Mexican femme fatale with a gang-banger background, Dante's world once again prepares to go into free fall.

Like the Oscar-winning movie, American Beauty, Dan Fante's Mooch is another nail hammered straight into the heart of the American Dream. And like his superb debut novel, Chump Change, Mooch provides further proof that Fante is a contemporary writer of enormous power, pathos, humanity and humour.

Customer Reviews

Fante still under the shadow of his father
“Mooch” is the second book in a trilogy of stories by Dan Fante, the son of the author John Fante. The main character is a thinly-disguised alter-ego called Bruno Dante.

The story of Bruno Dante revisits territory John Fante and Charles Bukowski have visited before. Dante is messed up, he is struggling with an alcohol addiction in LA, and his mouth often gets him into trouble. He also has the feeling that there is a voice inside him that he wants to express to the world, and he struggles to sit down and write while struggling with his inner demons. Dan’s father John Fante’s ghost haunts the trilogy, as the first book portrays the death of the main character’s father, and this second book shows that Dante is still under the shadow of his father’s death, just as Dan must have been in real life. The unstable, beautiful Mexican character Jimmi Valiente appears to be a direct tribute to Camilla Lopez in John Fante’s classic novel “Ask the Dust”.

“Charles Bukowski writing John Fante” would be a fair attempt to describe Dan Fante’s writing style, so if you like one of those two, you will probably enjoy this. At points his father’s influence seems too strong, as if he was so affected by his father’s failure to find fame that he feels duty-bound to carry on the same kind of work. The similarity to Bukowski comes from the raw style, and the unflinching, honest look at alcohol addiction. But Dan Fante brings his own tortured sense of compassion to the tale, and there is an uplifting sense of humanity in his work that makes it distinctive. I once read an interview with Fante in which he said that if there is a message in his writing, it is that you can be the most messed up weirdo in the world, and still be a perfect child of God. Actually, Fante put it in slightly more colourful language, but I can’t repeat that here.

If you’re squeamish about direct, raw depictions of addiction, alcoholism and sexuality, this may be a bit too much for you. If you are not squeamish, it still might be a good idea not to read this on the bus, because you know how people always look over your shoulder at what you’re reading when they get bored. This is a good book, and it carries on the story of Bruno Dante nicely. There are more humorous touches too, with the descriptions of the hilarious sales boiler room run by evangelical ex-alcoholics. The boss sees his employees as soldiers, and the salesmen are driven by unrestrained greed as if it is a substitute for alcohol.

I will check out the third book in the trilogy, but the real test for Fante is whether he can break free of his father’s influence and the confessional, auto-biographical style to create something new with his distinctive, flowing style. The hilarious description of the ex-alcoholic salesmen is a good sign that he may be ready to get away from ploughing the same auto-biographical furrow.

Fante hits the low life heights.
Dan Fante continues the saga of Bruno Dante with "Mooch"...battling with booze and infatuation he picks up the tale some time down the line from "Chump Change" the opening tale of the Dante trilogy. Fante writes with a clear, precise line reminisent of his father John...but owes more in content to his fathers most famous ( or infamous) pupil Charles Bukowski. A trip through L.A.'s sordid underbelly "Mooch" tells of the madness, hopelessness and endless turmoil of a life in disaray...cutting edge?...this is it.

Bukowski writes Ask The Dusk (sort of)
This story of Bruno Dante (alter ego of writer John Fante)really made me think of his father's classic novel 'Ask the Dusk' only written by Charles Bukowski. This is not entirely fair though, Fante has enough of his own style to warrant a read of this superb book.
The story takes place over a short period in which Dante battles alcoholism while trying to dry out in AA meetings and doing phone sales (and doing them quite well I might add). Destructive tendencies keep rearing their ugly head though (namely a crazy crack smoking lap-dancer that Dante falls for).
Despite the sleazyness of the character you are always sympathetic (hell, at least I was)and just can't help but turn another page. The pace is relentless, I ended up reading this in one sitting.
Newcomers to fante should begin with his first novel 'Chump Change'and no one should miss the chance to read 'Ask the Dusk'.