Mooch (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I HADN'T WRITTEN a word or a story or anything in months..." (more)
Key Phrases: Eddy Kammegian, Frankie Freebase, Orbit Computer Products (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dark and bleak, dirty and real. . . . Dan Fante's style is raw, insightful, and deftly realized." (Time Out New York )

"Breathtaking writing. . . . Angry, acerbic, self-pitying and often painfully funny. . . Read it at your peril." (Anthony Bourdain )

"This devastating and terrifying book . . . sees Fante writing the kind of emotionally tormented novel that his father would surely have written if he'd been born into Dan's generation." (Uncut ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Ten months after the death of his famous father, Dan Fante's antihero, Bruno Dante is back. He has cleaned himself up, straightened out, is attending AA and back on the mooch, selling computer-printer supplies for a militaristic disciplinarian and straight guy in a company staffed by a motley crew of ex-addicts. Then he meets Mexican femme fatale, Jimmi Valiente, a mesmerizingly beautiful new employee at Orbit Computer Supplies. Valiente is a former gangbanger, lap-dancer, crackhead, and once again Dante's world begins to go into free fall. The second novel in the Bruno Dante trilogy is a brutal satire of contemporary America by a writer of immense power and beauty "The Fantes, father and son, have been a major new discovery for me in these last few years." -- John Fowles "Dark and bleak, dirty and real ... Dan Fante's style is raw, insightful, and deftly realized." -- Time Out (New York)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Canongate U.S. (August 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841950696
• ISBN-13: 978-1841950693
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #892,871 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fante's MOOCH, August 2, 2001

By A Customer

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a sealed tuna sandwich with a wrapper..., September 11, 2001

By	John Scialli (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At last ...the sequel to Chump Change, August 2, 2001

By A Customer

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.