Spitting Off Tall Buildings

Read it months ago and still can't get it out of my mind. This guy is better than Bukowski. If you don't believe me give it a shot. What's it about? Trying to stay off booze and whatnot long enough to create on the typer--while desperately needing to hold on to some dead-end job in order to keep a bit of food in the belly and a roof overhead. This is life, the way it is for most people in this great nation of ours. Not everyone out there is wealthy like Bill Gates and has it made. Most people in this country are struggling and merely trying to make ends meet. Bruno Dante is one of us, one of many. He feels he has the ability and the talent to creat something he can be proud of as a writer...if he can keep the demons at bay long enough... You don't have to be a writer to be able to relate.A Great American Novel? That's exactly what I said.

The title of this review pertains to Dan Fante the novelist, and to "Bruno Dante", Fante's protagonist in this third installment about an alcololic on a downward spiral. Dan Fante is a brilliant writer who takes the reader into the bowels of hell and back. How does he do it? "Bruno Dante" is a man on a road to nowhere and, like all alcoholics, refuses to admit it but somehow keeps on going. How does he do it?"Bruno" started out as a chump (CHUMP CHANGE), then became a MOOCH and now he tries a geographical cure for his misery by moving to New York. In his first interview with a temp agency he lies about his last employer, telling the interviewer the company has relocated. "I've relocated, too" is his explanation for being in New York. Alcoholics are always trying to "relocate". Dead end job after dead end job follows until he finds himself hanging onto the side of a building, fourteen stories up, washing windows. The one satisfying moment of his day comes when he spits off a tall building knowing someone down below is lower than he. At least for that second. Once again Fante explains the illness of addiction in a way everyone can understand. The booze and the drugs are only simptoms. It's the mind that's messed up. Yet "Bruno" will continue to seek happiness in a place where happiness never has been and never will be found: in that messed up mind of his.You'll find yourself pulling for "Bruno" to find that happiness because, even though he's a full blown alcoholic, Fante has made him a very funny and likeable guy. Will he find that happiness we all seek? Read the book to find out.

The masterful Dan Fante, author of Spitting Off Tall Buildings, does it again. Easy to read, easy to relate. His protagonist Bruno Dante is a regular guy/struggling writer going from [bad] job to [bad] job in New York while at the same time hoping to create something worthwhile on the typewriter, etc., something he can be proud of... I like Fante as a human being, I like his "voice," and so will you. Unlike so many writers out there, he manages to stay clear of B.S. Life isn't easy for a lot of people; that's just the way things are and he lays it out. The style is pure, raw, from the heart and gut. The way it ought to be.

I'm a great fan of all Dan Fante's work, from his plays (I had the good fortune to see his brilliant THE CLOSER in New York last year), to his poems, to the Bruno Dante novel trilogy. In some ways this is my favorite piece of them all. Maybe it's because the locale is New York and Fante makes you FEEL every last bit of it like Celine makes you feel Paris -- the grit, the stench, the pulverizing heat, the stultifying cold. No matter how ugly Bruno's world can get, you never, ever want to put the books down, and this in my opinion is Dan Fante's greatest gift. He has the rare facility of keeping you engaged every step of the way, no matter what happens. You'll ride in Fante's cab here, and you'll wash skyscraper windows -- and you're not likely to ever forget the experience. Whenever I read anything written by Dan Fante, I think what a shame it is that the dolts and hacks in the world of publishing continue to get all the attention, when Dan Fante's name should be on everyone's lips.

I have been waiting two years to hear what happens to Bruno Dante - and I wasn't disappointed. SPITTING OFF TALL BUILDINGS it seems to this reader, is more of a predecessor to CHUMP CHANGE and MOOCH than a follow up. But that doesn't matter. Once again Dan Fante's literary skill is - dare I say it - dazzling! Few if any American writers today can go where Fante goes: To the belly of the beast. In an age of glitz and junk food sedatives mister Fante words stand out fearlessly. This is America in 2002. Loss, passion, humor, and disillusionment. A man's attempt to sort out a life and find a place for himself. No quesiton, this is, so far, The Best Novel of 2002. It stands by itself.