Customer Reviews

Chump Change

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

It becomes harder and harder to find anything good to read these days, the no b.s. real thing--and in Dan Fante's Chump Change I am happy to say that I have discovered a real winner! The man can write. Once it arrived in the mail from SPD and I started reading there was no way to put it down--always a good sign. Powerful tale that rings true and authentic--I know, because I once lived in that hellhole called L.A. No disrespect meant towards his diceased father, the also fine writer John Fante, but the son is even better. The writing is so strong and hard-hitting that I put it right up there with John O'Brien's Leaving Las Vegas (although story is entirely different ); the all out style and way of telling his story places this author in the same unique league as Pleasant Gehman, Charles Bukowski, Clarence Cooper, Jr., Robert Beck (Iceberg Slim) Celine, Nat West, etc. Can't wait to get my hands on Mooch, his latest. To any other book lovers out there, fans of great fiction, who are like me and gave up on the b.s. that is tv and Hollywood flicks a long time ago, I suggest to look up Small Press Distribution or Last Gasp Press for the hard to find well-written gems--as this is how I discovered Dan Fante's Chump Change. Why should it be so difficult for us to find works of art like this book and others like it when so much tripe is out there and placed on bestseller lists by the major publishing houses? you got me there--because I never believe the bestseller lists and never, ever buy anything that is placed right there on tables in the lobby of the major chain stores--because I know it is pure crap, and because it bothers me to know that the true talents like Mr. Dan Fante and others like him have to "sneak in" the back door of publishing by first being published by the smaller indie houses in order to get any recognition at all. So if you can relate to what I'm saying here ignore the junk the big houses are putting out and go for the real thing like this certified modern classic. We loved Chump Change and wish Mr. Fante all the best in the future. Give us more!

Genius, Dan you write what we think but didn't realise we thought, and do things my own insanity never took me to but could have and it is hysterically funny. I am blown away by the magic, insight, humor and genius writing of Mooch and Chump Change. More more!!

If you've ever been on a booze binge, you'll know that Dan Fante is not kidding. Once you've read this book, you'll be thinking about it for the rest of your life. His father may be the one you know, but if its an open outlook on the nineties your after, look no further.

John Fante is one of the greats and it looks like his son inherited some of the magic - but none of the lightness of touch. Dan's got problems, at least, his fictional alter-ego, Bruno Dante, does. But boy, when he irons out the creases, he can certainly write. This is devastating stuff, pretty nasty at times, but he really takes you down there, and his old man's dog too. There is a superb sequence where Bruno begs his boss for one more chance - "I'm a vampire!" he cries. Don't bother reading it if you're on a downward slide. Wait 'til you're up again, then dive in.

...this book is just one mans truth; brutal, black horrible, and terrifying truth.amazing story telling,wonderful writing,and absolute passion.i stumbled across this book(ironicly)while searching for a(3rd) replacement copy of his fathers classic novel "ask the dust"(i keep forcing my friends to read it and never get it back...go figure).reading this book made me break out in tears many times, the only book to do that, other than ask the dust. i can't praise this book enough! will he write another? i am no literary type...but i know this is one of the most beautiful books i've ever read!

"Chump Change" is Bruno Dante's memoir of his life after being released from a "nut house" in the Bronx and his journey, both psychic and literal, home to Malibu to see his dying father, Jonathan Dante ("Ask the Dust"). "In this house, I was to experience what happens when a passionate artist gives up what he does and comes to detest himself."
Bruno is wounded. His soul and his heart ache for his father's love and acceptance but like Bruno Jonathan was also, for most of his life addicted to alcohol. Jonathan was either lost in a fog of alcohol, in a frenzy of writing...or both. Jonathan was unavailable to Bruno both physically and emotionally and Bruno becoming a writer only made this distance between the two more pronounced not less so. "Loving Jonathan Dante had not been an easy thing for anyone to do...I heard myself say, I Love You (to my father, Jonathan). Saying the words, what I felt was something like sorrow, but it was not sorrow, it was far deeper. It was the emptiness of a hole that would never be filled."
Fante has an uncanny ability to reduce a situation to its well-observed basics: "Seeing L.A. from the Air was more frightening than memory permitted. Real, vivid science fiction. It was just after sundown when we began to land. The natural light of day was gone replaced by billions of smog particles that gave the coming darkness the hue of blood in a draining sink. This enormous, overfed, infected pig of a city rolled across the landscape as far as the eye could see, coughing, snorting and sucking up whatever was once natural and undisturbed."
Many passages in "Chump Change" are laugh out loud funny though most are tragic for what we witness is Bruno's talent being smothered by layers of alcohol, drugs and fear: "I might have written books. He (Jonathan) had done it. Why hadn't I? It was because I had given up, had never had the courage to let myself fail. My father was dead and so was I. That was the sadness and the truth that was in my soul."
"Chump Change" negates the above statement: though sad and often depressing it nonetheless stands as a testament to Bruno's remarkable, incontestable talent.

"Chump Change" is an emotional slice of life that cuts below the skin, exposing the bare sinew of the American psyche. Definitely worth reading for anyone who is interested in knowing what makes the desperate American tick.

DAN FANTE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS! HIS STORIES ARE EXCITING AND VERY HABIT FORMING! CHUMP CHANGE IS A BOOK THAT THE READER WILL HAVE A HARD TIME PUTTING DOWN!

IF YOUR SUBSCRIBERS HAVE NOT TASTED DAN FANTE, THEY ARE TRULY MISSING THE BOAT!THIS BOOK IS A CLASSIC THAT SHOULD BE ON EVERYONES MUST READ LIST!

I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL BRUNO'S NEXT ADVENTURE!

AL MARTH

i have bought all the john fante books that i could find. i admire his writing tremendously. but who knew he had a son? and one that writes, to boot? and one that even writes very honestly and very interestingly and very well? well, it turns out he does have a son who writes books just like i described. very good stuff, here. dad should be proud over there on the other side of whatever.

Unbelievably raw and touching. Without even knowing it's happening Dan Fante has you by the throat, bringing you under the dark waters of his world. In an effortless spraw of minamilstic prose you quickly understand that Chump Change with resonate with the Greats of the literary world for years to come.