Chump Change: A Novel [Paperback]

When he finds out his father is in a coma, aspiring writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante, fresh from the nuthouse, must head to Los Angeles for a fraught family reunion in Dan Fante’sChump Change. Now back in print to coincide with the publication of his new novel,86’d, Chump Changefollows Bruno through the tension and stress of facing his family—and the inevitable, pain-dulling drinking that lands him naked in a stolen car with an underage hooker whose pimp has stolen his wallet.Chump Changeis “an honest misfit’s view of America far too few know.” (John Fowles, author ofThe French Lieutenant’s Woman).

A blackout brought on by a Mad Dog binge that ended with a self-inflicted steak knife wound bought Bruno Dante another stint in the nuthouse, no different from all the rest. Now it's done, and his wife, Agnes—taking time off from her personal-trainer lover—has come to pick Bruno up and to deliver a message from the West Coast: his screenwriter father is in the hospital in a coma and is not expected to live. So Bruno heads back to Los Angeles for a fraught family reunion, where the tension and stress force him to dull the pain the only way he knows how—with alcohol. And when he wakes up naked in a stolen car with an underage hooker whose pimp has stolen his wallet, Bruno realizes the trip has just begun.