Customer Reviews

Mooch

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first came upon Dan Fante's work three years ago while picking up a copy of his father's (John Fante) Ask The Dust for a friend. It was then that I reluctantly bought and read his first novel, CHUMP CHANGE. I say reluctantly because I was sure that the son could not come close to the skill of his brilliant father? Then I opened the book and began my awakening. Reading Dan Fante was like discovering matches and gasoline at the same moment. Dan is every inch the equal of his great father. What I read was page after page of passion, rage, and unrestrained power. Now comes Dan fante's new novel, MOOCH. Plainly, the book is a stunner! The most powerful American novel I have read in the last ten years. MOOCH traces a year in the life of an alcoholic telemarketer, Bruno Dante, through the steaming intestines of southern California - and spares the reader nothing. Fante's hero (?) Bruno Dante has a gift; he can seemingly sell anything to anyone over the telephone. But his love for the beautiful and destructive lap dancer Jimmi Valiente and his obcession for alcohol outweigh all else. The resultant mix is a flaming and unrestrained human train wreck. Dan Fante's gift for black humor and his passion for his characters stain and exhault every page. Here Los Angeles is a major character too, as is the American Dream. I cannot recommend MOOCH enough. I could not put it down.

There are books made of words and there are books made of the spaces between the words. Mooch is the latter. There is such a paper thin buffer between the reader and the actor that there is a compulsion to read Mooch as if it were happening in real time. I read this is close to one sitting. There is no way to put the book down just as there is no way to put life on hold. The story line is much less chaotic than Chump Change, Fante's first novel in the Bruno Dante trilogy (Mooch is actually the third with the second published only overseas as yet). The elements of the plot are mundane, office supply boiler-room washed-up and dressed-out SALESbeings, for gawds sake. Yet the setting makes sense for the parallels developed between men and their cold calls. Face it, this is the story behind those infomercials you pretend to yourself you're not watching and, face it, infomercials are the mythology of the day. Mooch is a cracked open skull of a book in which the author is fearless in writing about your dirty little secrets. You say you never masturbated into the coffee mug of the woman you love? I don't believe you.

I couldn't wait for this US publication and a friend bought a UK import edition for me a little while ago. I devoured it in a day. The good news is that not only is Dan still alive and writing, he's even living a little... ok, so he falls off the wagon a few times and creates a few scenes, he's human. There's some episodes here that are downright painful to read and you wonder if he's actually going to make it through to complete his story. It takes guts to write this kind of stuff and Dan has them. I wish there were more writers like this. He's intelligent and he's not afraid to tell it like it is. I can only recommend this book. It's not a fashionable book, nor is it likely to become a highly publicized best-seller. But more often than not, these are the best books. I can't help wondering as well if it was Dan that called me one time trying to sell me office supplies.

Bruno Dante and Jimmi Valiente's relationship seems hopeless throughout "Mooch," but the ending is a heartbreaker you won't expect.

Fante's prose is improved from "Chump Change" -- snappier and smoother. The incidental characters are still thin, but Jimmi comes across like a lightning bolt, and Fante handles her Spanglish dialect perfectly.

Although the author still speaks through a psychotic, antisocial character who couldn't be bothered to give a damn about the world around him except for what he can get out of it, he still makes you want Dante to come out of his tailspin and break the "curse" of the family, self-destructive alcoholicism.

A few editorial missteps occasionally distracted me while reading this book -- little typos like "born" instead of "borne," spelling Puerta Vallarta wrong and some confusing misuses of commas -- but overall the books reads cleanly and quickly.

Addiction is everywhere in the text -- to drugs, sex, money, even literary success -- and if you find you need another fix of the kind of hotshot writing Fante makes seem easy, you can't go wrong with his father, John Fante, or his clear influence, Bukowski. More recent writers who share this space are Denis Johnson, Larry Brown and Barry Hannah.

It was Memorial Day and I could not go out because I was engrossed in Mooch. It is a fascinating, multi-layered deep and funny journey with a cast of powerless characters. I loved this book and want to read more.

As stated above: hard-hitting and insane. What can you do? That's just the way things are for a lot of people these days.Bruno is in love with a crazy, drug-using broad who doesn't give a damn about him and will sleep with anyone who can get her flying. Bruno, a recovering boozer himself, is stuck with a madwoman on his hands. Strong stuff, honestly presented. Dan Fante is a real find for me.

I have only one complaint with Mr.Fante. He needs to write more. I don't see why he does not have 20 books. If you haven't read him, I strongly encourage you to consider his stuff. It's haunting, engaging, lasting. Fiction for our new depression. Winopocalypse.

Brilliant! What Orwell would have written had he tried telemarketing instead of dish washing. What Fitzgerald would have written had he known about the "Big Book". What Keraouc did write except for a PG-13 audience in the late 40's. Dan Fante get's it right. You are down and out, on the road, and in love with a muse that is every bit as crazy as Fitsgerald's very own Zelda. It's all there. The insanity, the recovery, the obsession and the biggest mooch of them all, Bruno Dante himself. Since a mooch can be a free loader, a drug addict, a wanderer, or a sucker, you have to read the book to decide which definition Fante is using. I'm off to find the rest of his books.

DAN FANTE AGAIN GRABS REAL LIFE BY THE THROAT! MOOCH IS ANOTHER RUNAWAY CLASSIC BY ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING AUTHORS IN THE U.S. TODAY! DAN PAINTS A PICTURE WITH HIS WORDS THAT DEFINES THE WORLD OF HARD KNOCKS! THE ONLY STRUGGLE THAT I HAD WITH THE BOOK WAS TRYING TO PUT IT DOWN!
IF THIS BOOK ISN'T ON YOUR MUST READ LIST, THEN PUT IT ON YOUR LIST TODAY!
LONG LIVE BRUNO DANTE!

ALBERT C. MARTH

Fante is better than Bukowski. I loved Buk while in college, but Fante has taken the torch for me. LA, at least the crappy parts of it, are tangible in Mooch. You feel the heat, smell the smoke, and taste the booze I understood the protagonist's sauce problem with even more reality than I did in Chump Change. Every word is perfect in the text and the story flows as smoothly as a cool bottle of Mad Dog 20/20.
Pick it up- you'll be glad you did.