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Bruno Dante, aspirant playwright, part-time depressive and long-time drunk has hitch-hiked cross country. Escaping the sunshine, have-a-nice-day culture of LA, for the more cynical climate of New York. He should fit right in. But if there's money for beer he's sure to fuck up. A rut of deadbeat tempting jobs follow. But Dante won't play office politics or kiss ass. So they don't last long. Longer stints as the night manager of a run-down hotel, a window cleaner and, finally, a cabbie, are punctuated by whacked-out affairs, drinking binges and bouts of depression. Beautiful and brutal in equal measures, Fante's insights are fiercely compelling, desperately compassionate and obscenely funny. This is utterly unmissable.
From the Back Cover
"Fante writes hard, emotive prose in which every word matters." The Face
"Fante writes like a screwed-up Chandler, living the life that most only ever write about." Morning Star
Spitting off Tall Buildings is the last episode in the Bruno Dante trilogy. This time Dante finds himself in New York, needing work. The type of work available to a man like Dante is rarely challenging or interesting. Work is more often just a battle to survive - a struggle with his inner demons before they screw things up for him. He tries his hand at countless jobs; movie theatre usher, hotel night manager, belt sales man, taxi driver and window cleaner of tall buildings amongst others. But nothing lasts, Dante is not a man who jells with bosses well.
This is the desperate plight of a man and his addiction. A man who uses alcohol to suppress the noises in his head, and who drinks to escape the wretchedness of his predicament, but whose drinking is jeopardising his one raison d'etre - his writing.
Dan Fante is the son of the late John Fante acclaimed writer of 1933 Was a Bad Year. Dan Fante drank for 20 years, married three times and worked in more dead-end jobs than he can remember. Now sober, he has written three novels, a play and a collection of poetry.
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