Chump Change: A Novel

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’s Chump Change. Now back in print to coincide with the publication of his new novel, 86’d, Chump Change follows 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 Change is “an honest misfit’s view of America far too few know.” (John Fowles, author of The 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.

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“Don’t miss Chump Change. It is passionate, obscene, and quite wonderful.” - Los Angeles Times

“Not a word comes out that one would correct . . . it is sublime.” - Gérard Guégan

“It is refreshing to find a novel that is fresh, original and distinctive. Dan Fante has a remarkably clean eye for detail and an astonishing ability to keep his narrative moving along in all senses . . . emotionally gripping. No one who reads it will ever forget the experience.” - Jay Martin

“Bruised and corrosive and utterly compelling, Chump Change aches with Fante’s sizzled wisdom, haggard philosophy and low-life compassion. It’s a desperate yet desperately humane book. This is Soul Fiction.” - Kevin Sampson, Author of Awaydays and Powder

“The Fantes, father and son, have been a major new discovery for me in these last few years. I can’t think of the West Coast without them. I first read Dan’s Chump Change in French . . . and I know why the French like this book and its quirky angers. It gives an honest misfit’s view of America far too few know.” - John Fowles, Author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman