Description:

Bruno Dante -- aspiring playwright, part-time depressive, and full-time drunk -- has hitchhiked cross-country, escaping the sunshine, have-a-nice-day culture of L.A. for the more cynical climate of New York. It seems to be his kind of town. But he's Bruno Dante, and things are always bound to go wrong. He finds himself in the rut of deadbeat temping jobs, but they don't last. Dante won't play office politics or kiss ass. Longer stints as the night manager of a run-down hotel, a window cleaner, and, finally, a cabbie are punctuated by a number of meaningless affairs, drinking binges, and the customary bouts of depression. Beautiful and brutal in equal measures, Fante's insights are once again fiercely compelling, desperately compassionate, and obscenely funny. Unmissable. ### Review “Dan Fante’s novel does an excellent job of delivering this tale of depraved despair with a steady one-two-punch rhythm that hurts like hell while still being impossible to put down.” (Sacramento Book Review ) “As we trawl with him through deadbeat and dead-end jobs, this unsettling novel is haunted by the spectre of Charles Bukowski.” (The Times (London) ) “Evokes brutally and skillfully the violently numb condition of his alter ego.” (The Times (London) ) “Moments which brush the genius of Bukowski and Hubert Selby.” (Elle (France) ) “It gives an honest misfit’s view of America far too few know.” (John Fowles ) “A truly great American novel.” (Scotland on Sunday ) ### From the Back Cover Bruno Dante has fled Los Angeles for New York City. With its cold, hard edge, it's his kind of town. . . . But the string of deadbeat temporary telemarketing gigs is getting to Bruno and the steady work he can stand is hard to come by. Bruno's trying everything: hotel night manager, window cleaner, and cab driver, all the while punctuating his unsatisfying employment experiments with meaningless affairs and intense drinking binges. Then something totally unexpected pops up and Bruno finds himself in a position to act *responsibly*, to start writing again, and to get his life back on track. But like his drinking, screwing up might be a habit that's too deeply ingrained to shake.