Mooch

Rating:
Summary: Fante's latest is stunning
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: not worthy of the fante name
Review: Dan Fante's prose lacks the emotion, snarl, and crisp love of his father's beautiful novels and short stories. His novels are really quite conventional once you get around the thin veil of filthy language and extremely demented characters to find a half-thought out plot and senseless dialogue. His anti-hero is a worthless cop of Arturo Bandini - the only thing worse is his poetry, which wishes it had a sliver of Bukowski's originality and personality --- this stuff is weak.

Rating:
Summary: Fante's latest is stunning
Review: Even thought Bruno Dante and Jimmi Valiente's relationship seems hopelessly doomed throughout this book, the ending is still a heartbreaker.

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.

And though Fante 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, all of whom I recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Mooch Moves...
Review: 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.


Rating:
Summary: Bible for telemarketeers...You ought to read it!
Review: Fast paced Bukowski. Only glimps of his old man's writing. Dan figured, it will sell better, especially overseas. It is good, but not better than Chump Change. It took me some pages to 'warm-up' to this work, but still finished in one afternoon.
Yes, it is good and i hope he gets the recognition his father didn't.

Rating:
Summary: Bruno Dante Forever
Review: I have been a fan of John Fante for many years. Sadly, this great writer did not have the recognition he deserved during his lifetime. No so for Dan Fante. I have seen his reviews in the local papers. And Dan is alive and well and writing the kind of prose his father might be writing if he were pounding away at the post-modern fiction of today.

MOOCH is nothing less than sensaitonal. Every page has punch and rage and passion. Not a word comes out that needs correction. Dan Fante has heart and pain and he is not afraid to expose either. This is one fine contemporary novel. I have also read Dan's CHUMP CHANGE and found it excellent. 5 STARS.

My hat is off to the Fante's. Father and son both. It could not be easy for Dan to be the child of father who was so brilliant. But every page he writes is worth re-reading and re-reading. MOOCH is the American Dream The California Highway Patrol. I cannot trecommend this book enough.

Rating:
Summary: wrecking ball to the solar plexus
Review: I read most of Mooch on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York. I finished it with great interest the following morning. The Bruno character is a devil of a fellow--I oscillated between hating Bruno and having real compassion for Bruno, all the while wondering how much of the tale is true to the author's life. The "love affair" between Bruno and Jimmi was unconvincing at first, mainly because I thought Bruno was such a total sucker despite his hardass Hemingway exterior. Mooch draws the reader into a flickering film noir'ish portrait of crippling addiction, reckless sexual obsession, and corporate America. Written with an emotional, showy honesty, Mooch is the second book in a planned trilogy. Chump Change was the first. It will be interesting to see what Dan Fante comes up with for the finale. I'll be reading.

Rating:
Summary: You Won't Be Able To Put It Down
Review: I'd never heard of Dan Fante until Amazon recommended him to me. I figured I'd give him a try, and I'm glad I did. Fante is able to grab the reader by the throat and almost force a one-sitting reading of his work. Very fast-paced and fun throughout, I would recommend this to anyone who reads for pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: You Won't Be Able To Put It Down
Review: I'd never heard of Dan Fante until Amazon recommended him to me. I figured I'd give him a try, and I'm glad I did. Fante is able to grab the reader by the throat and almost force a one-sitting reading of his work. Very fast-paced and fun throughout, I would recommend this to anyone who reads for pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: Fargo humor & Bukowski writing
Review: 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.