Dan Fante es el hijo del mítico escritor y uno de los mas importantes representantes del realismo sucio John Fante a quien Charles Bukowski bautizó como “mi dios”, creador de uno de los personajes emblemáticos de la literatura norteamericana Arturo Bandini. Dan Fante deja Los Ángeles a la edad de veinte años y decide dedicarse a vender de puerta en puerta, taxista, vendedor vía telefónica y una larga lista de empleos de poca paga mientras por las noches se dedicaba a vomitar sobre la pagina en blanco las historias que vivía o las que existían en su cabeza. Ha escrito dos libros de poesía, cuatro novelas, un libro de relatos y dos obras de teatro; Sajalin Editores edita por primera vez su obra principal en español “Chump Change” cuya traducción vendría siendo como poco dinero o alguien que cobra un miserable salario.Dan Fante en mas de una oportunidad ha declarado que comienza a escribir porque simplemente decide no darse un tiro en la cabeza, alcohólico depresivo con altas tendencias suicidas, cargaba gran parte del día un arma solo por tenerla o bien para matarse o dispararle al primer imbécil que se le acercara, bebía hasta perder el control, su relación con el mundo en general era de un odio absoluto. La situación con su padre no era perfecta, es bien sabido que John Fante no era muy amable con nadie, ni siquiera con sus hijos a quien según Dan los veía como unos “muebles” que estaban en el medio y solo con la distancia aprendió lo que era amar a su padre. Han pasado ya 68 años de vida y esos excesos han quedado lejos, ahora Dan Fante vive mas estable con un piercing en su nariz, un sombrero vaquero y disfrutando un relativo éxito dentro de la literatura. Según el mismo autor su obra es de alto contenido autobiográfico y al igual que hizo su padre al crear el alter ego Arturo Bandini pues Dan Fante utiliza a Bruno Dante un personaje con absolutamente todas las características mencionadas anteriormente excepto por un intento de suicidio clavándose un cuchillo en el estomago, unas largas estadías en psiquiátricos y muchas orgías homosexuales. Bruno Fante sale después de una larga temporada en un manicomio para visitar a su padre moribundo quien está perdiendo la batalla contra una larga enfermedad acostado ciego y sin piernas; por supuesto el encuentro con la familia, el odio a su ex - esposa no es nada grato, los recuerdos comienzan a golpear nuevamente y los personajes comunes aparecen para darle a la trama giros inesperados en este largo viaje de costa a costa por toda la carretera que llevará a Bruno a un final hermoso y poético.“Chump Change” se escribe con frases cortas, directas, no hay una prosa enredada, todo es directo, somos parte de la vida de Bruno durante todo este viaje literario, posee unos momentos con una carga sentimental muy fuerte, el amor hacia el perro de su padre es mágico, o el encuentro en una librería de segunda mano del libro “Pregúntale al Viento” escrito por su difunto padre y la conversa con el vendedor es de lo mejor que se ha escrito últimamente. “Chump Change” se encuentra repleto de momentos que sacuden internamente al lector, el final cierra un círculo maravilloso de una obra que no deja ningún espacio en blanco.“Chump Change” no pudo ser publicada en Norteamérica por su alto contenido “pornográfico” según las editoriales y es en Francia donde es publicada por primera vez, solo tiempo después es que logra aparecer en la tierra de Dan Fante. En resumen es un libro que ensucia pero limpia perfectamente el alma, un libro que solo los que conocen la prosa de John Fante o Charles Bukowski podrán disfrutar. Un libro para los perdedores que son en realidad ganadores de la vida, que cada día encuentran una minima razón para no volarse la cabeza.http://bitacoradelscriptorium.blogspo...
The Los Angels Times called Chump Change “passionate, obscene and quite wonderful.” It is passionate and obscene...and well written, but wonderful? I must admit that my brief forays into Charles Bukowski and John Fante, the author’s father, have taken their toll. I keep remembering that one of my best friends in college, a bright and for a time successful businessman, ended up a derelict on the streets of Cleveland. He died too young because of alcoholism and left his wife—a friend also—and daughter in a pretty rough financial state. I used to drink with him while in college—never saw it coming. I knew when to quit drinking and could. He didn't and couldn’t and it killed him. So when I read about the utter degradation of what an alcoholic goes through, such as Dan Fante skillfully put on paper in Chump Change, I somberly think of my old pal and what might have been—except for the booze.The book is confessional-autobiographical. The protagonist is named Bruno Dante, the son of a screenwriter and novelist who is dying. The story is about Bruno traveling with his wife (who hates him) from New York to Los Angeles and his experiences there around his father’s failing condition and death.Early in the book, Bruno says, “I was decomposing from within, like this preposterous town. L.A. was the right place for me after all. I belonged here with the killers of my father: the mind-fucking twenty-two-year old movie producers and distribution gurus who’d dictated the course of his life. I was a true son of L.A.“This was perfect. In a drunken sexual frenzy, I had disgraced myself, then cut my wrists in jail, and now I would show up to shake my brother’s hand and kiss my mother’s cheek.“Standing there I made a decision. I didn’t care....”In a conversation with his brother: “I had not planned to be crazy, I said. Arrests for lewd practices in public were things that happened when I drank. I’d not planned to be a degenerate. Life got away from me. Out of hand. I couldn’t figure it out either.”He ends up with his father’s old bull terrier, Rocco, also dying. The feeding and care of Rocco becomes part of the story. Bruno particularly likes Mogen David Mad Dog 20-20 for its numbing effects. He meets a pimp, McBeth, who ditches his whore, Amy, after taking Bruno’s money. Amy is about fifteen, flat-chested, horse-faced, skinny like a young boy, and she stutters when she’s not drunk. She likes Mad Dog too. The whole Bruno-Amy relationship is funny in a sick way. It doesn’t last.Bruno reminisces about his father and life as a child when he sees his old house, close to Paramount. His father couldn’t make it as a novelist and sold out for money as a screenwriter. I found this attitude interesting, as though there was something wrong with screenwriting. Who knew?But...”Sometimes a Mad Dog run could last two or three days, sometimes weeks...Now , my mind out of THE DOG, self-judgement stabbed at me and ripped my guts until it would be impossible for me to exist in my thoughts. Without the wine, my head remembered only evil...A pimp junkie had stolen my money. I had allowed myself to get fucked by an absurd, handicapped child. My cowardice in leaving the hospital the night before and not facing my father’s death was completely selfish and without conscience. I’d stolen my brother Fabrezio’s car. I was a degenerate, with an insatiable capacity for perversion. Incapable of change. I could do anything except not drink.”He needs a job and the story of his experiences selling for a video dating service is good writing. The job doesn’t last either. But the book actually ends on the upbeat. Bruno is thinking...about loving his father. He’s written a poem...and he’s gone one whole day without a drink.
What do You think about Chump Change (1998)?
ead the STOP SMILING interview with author Dan FanteQ&A: Dan FanteBy Anthony ReynoldsNovelist, playwright and poet Dan Fante is the second son of John Fante.He is well regarded in Europe and his novels include Mooch, Chump Change and Spitting off Tall BuildingsStop Smiling: As both a novelist and a screenwriter, what are the main similarities between the processes? And what are the major differences?Dan Fante: I don't mean to be overly unkind here, but screenwriting is a process quite unlike legitimate prose. Screenwriters are the errand boys for producers and directors. The do what they are told to do: "Fix this. Make her tits bigger. Let's have her be a victim of incest." That kind of nonsense. Screenwriting is not writing. It is a collaborative process in which the so-called creative person becomes an underpaid, over-ruled typist.SS: What are your experiences with Hollywood? How close have you gotten to a script becoming a film?DF: My book Mooch will be a film this year or next. I wrote the screenplay. Thankfully, having written the original document, the book itself is our point of reference in writing the movie. But make no mistake, what I said above still holds sway, to at least some extent.SS: Have you met many in the business who are aware of the Fante name within the history of Hollywood?DF: Most people in Hollywood know the name John Fante. Of course they haven't read his stuff, they've just heard he was a good novelist. And, by having an option on one or more of his books, they might become rich. John Fante is a commodity — like fertilizer is a commodity. Read the complete interview...
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I love it when an author can turn the germ of predictable short story into a novel worth reading. The plot is unsurprising, as are the characters; what makes Chump Change a pleasure is the poetry inherent in the Malibu/Canyon/Santa Monica area...that remote and lonely stretch of No Man's Land known as PCH. I know it well, know all the stops, and like to follow Bruno's weaving trail of woe in my mind, the arid desolation of postcard perfection. Best line? It's given in a poem by the teenage, stuttering prostitute Amy:"I've got a pair of socks I like better than you,"
—Y
Dan Fante's writing lands somewhere between Bukowski and Dan's father, the late John Fante - which is a odd place to be as Bukowski practically stole John Fante's style, and Fante sold his soul for the lucrative money of Hollywood scriptwriting and really didn't fully pursue his career as a novelist. Not that his books aren't amazing, particularity Ask The Dust - but this isn't about John's books, this is about his son, Dan - who writes like the bastard son of both Bukowski and his father - if that makes any sense? Chump Change, opens with Dan leaving a New York City drug and alcohol rehab two days early to rush to his dying father's bedside in Los Angeles. His estranged wife picks him up in a cab, and in less than a hour he's already slugging down a half pint of Ten-High. Then on the flight to LA he gets worse downing multiple mini bottles of Jack Daniels, and, well, it's all downhill from there - or uphill if you're into this sort of dismal nior drunken madness - as Dan alienates his wife and family even further by, well, by being Dan. Stealing his wife's credit card and his brother's car he leaves his father dying in the hospital, rescues his father's dog, picks up a stuttering underage hooker and together they hide out in a cheap Hollywood motel drinking MD 2020 and treating each other like shit. Oddly enough it all works, only Dan isn't a very likable character. And so it is hard to care whether he survives or not, although it feels that he desperately wants his readers to care. I fluctuated between liking the book, and hating the book - but I read it in two late night sittings, and ultimately decided it was worth reading.
—Patrick O'Neil
