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How to Beg for Cigarettes Matt Ponticello Books

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How to Beg for Cigarettes Matt Ponticello Books

In this extraordinary book you step into the life of a man who has decided to open an auto-body shop in the heart of the inner city. The neighborhood is so bad, his building has no owner, and he therefore has no rent to pay. Drug dealers, prostitutes, homeless people and gang members drop in to the shop and make getting to and from work a daily adventure. But hold on, ditch your preconceptions. The author devotes a chapter or more to every one of these people, and by the time you have read two or three of these portraits, you are hooked.

Although he's not an easy touch, Ponticello, whose book is in large part autobiographical, gives away nearly all of his cigarettes. The so-called low-lifes of the world are not only his friends, they are his customers and employees. His chief mechanic is a Honduran illegal who speaks only Spanish, and this man's assistants are a gang of boys who you know are up to no good. Ponticello gives them all a job, and more than that a purpose. In exchange they give him their loyalty, respect and love.

His neighbors, the bail bondsman Calloway, the lawyer Melendez, and the tow truck driver Vinnie are people he does business with daily. It's surprising how the auto-body shop can turn into the center of this little universe. Vinnie tows in work to be done. The lawyer defends the drug dealers whose cars get confiscated when they get busted, and often as not need a repair job. The bail bondsman gets them out of jail.

The homeless are like pigeons. Why? Because when Angelo the diner owner goes out the door and empties his ashtray onto the sidewalk, the homeless come running to fight over the butts that might have one or two smokes left in them.

The voluptuous Romanian Juliska sells "loosies," single cigarettes, for fifty cents a pop, and don't ask which brand. When Ponticello helps a fat man who has fallen get back to his feet, the fat man asks him for a cigarette to calm his nerves. Ponticello makes the mistake of shaking one up out of the pack and holding up the pack. The fat man steals the whole pack and runs away down the sidewalk, much to the amusement of Juliska. She informs him it's another homeless person, this one unknown to Ponticello.

What ties them all together is on one level cigarettes. This is a cigarette economy, in which cigarettes are like money. It provides a way for the characters in this world to purchase, give away, steal, or beg. They also give people a currency for communicating with each other. On the street, cigarettes are like a common lingo. Even more than cigarettes themselves, though, it's that craven need for them that reveals people's humanity on the street, and that ties them together in this story, and it's all the neverending instances of giving and taking and the petty negotiations and the thievery, too.

The book is written beautifully but not flawlessly, like the people who inhabit it. I listened to the book on my Kindle for the most part; when I read it, my eyes were distracted by spelling errors here and there. Nevertheless, this book is to the inner city in America what Dominique LaPierre's book City of Joy is to the slums of Calcutta. If you are ready to immerse yourself in that world and feel its beauty and power, you will definitely want to read it.


Tags : Amazon.com: How to Beg for Cigarettes (9781602642157): Matt Ponticello: Books,Matt Ponticello,How to Beg for Cigarettes,Virtualbookworm.com Publishing,160264215X,FICTION Humorous General,Fiction - General,Humorous

How to Beg for Cigarettes Matt Ponticello Books Reviews

Very good book. Matt Ponticello writes about owning an auto repair in a bad section of town. Very real look at life in the inner city. This book is a laugh a minute. Hope he writes more books.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Matt Ponticello made the cast of characters seem so real, i could picture them in my mind. In the beginning he comes in contact with a gang of boys, who I thought were going to be trouble, but he hires them and they become very loyal to him. It was a very funny book, easy to read and a real page turner. I read it mostly on my lunch hour and it really put me in a better mood going back to work. I would recommend this book, it is very entertaining. Looking forward to his next one!!
When John Steinbeck published Cannery Row in 1945 and its sequel Sweet Thursday 15 years later, he found humour and pathos in a cast of down and outs homeless people, misfits, con men and prostitutes.
Don't get me wrong. How to Beg for Cigarettes , isn't crafted by a master like Steinbeck.
You might say it's a bit rough around the edges - but it does ring the same bells and it's a gem that would sparkle even more with some polish.
Steinbeck, like most of us, used personal experiences as his foundation in those novels of his.
Matt Ponticello's story is even more autobiographical.
He tells the story of how he came to run an auto (there's that word again) body shop in the pressure-cooker of an inner-city location inhabited by a cast of characters too varied and interesting to make up homeless people, down and outs, misfits, con men and prostitutes. Sound familiar?
Give this book a chance. You won't be disappointed.
In this extraordinary book you step into the life of a man who has decided to open an auto-body shop in the heart of the inner city. The neighborhood is so bad, his building has no owner, and he therefore has no rent to pay. Drug dealers, prostitutes, homeless people and gang members drop in to the shop and make getting to and from work a daily adventure. But hold on, ditch your preconceptions. The author devotes a chapter or more to every one of these people, and by the time you have read two or three of these portraits, you are hooked.

Although he's not an easy touch, Ponticello, whose book is in large part autobiographical, gives away nearly all of his cigarettes. The so-called low-lifes of the world are not only his friends, they are his customers and employees. His chief mechanic is a Honduran illegal who speaks only Spanish, and this man's assistants are a gang of boys who you know are up to no good. Ponticello gives them all a job, and more than that a purpose. In exchange they give him their loyalty, respect and love.

His neighbors, the bail bondsman Calloway, the lawyer Melendez, and the tow truck driver Vinnie are people he does business with daily. It's surprising how the auto-body shop can turn into the center of this little universe. Vinnie tows in work to be done. The lawyer defends the drug dealers whose cars get confiscated when they get busted, and often as not need a repair job. The bail bondsman gets them out of jail.

The homeless are like pigeons. Why? Because when Angelo the diner owner goes out the door and empties his ashtray onto the sidewalk, the homeless come running to fight over the butts that might have one or two smokes left in them.

The voluptuous Romanian Juliska sells "loosies," single cigarettes, for fifty cents a pop, and don't ask which brand. When Ponticello helps a fat man who has fallen get back to his feet, the fat man asks him for a cigarette to calm his nerves. Ponticello makes the mistake of shaking one up out of the pack and holding up the pack. The fat man steals the whole pack and runs away down the sidewalk, much to the amusement of Juliska. She informs him it's another homeless person, this one unknown to Ponticello.

What ties them all together is on one level cigarettes. This is a cigarette economy, in which cigarettes are like money. It provides a way for the characters in this world to purchase, give away, steal, or beg. They also give people a currency for communicating with each other. On the street, cigarettes are like a common lingo. Even more than cigarettes themselves, though, it's that craven need for them that reveals people's humanity on the street, and that ties them together in this story, and it's all the neverending instances of giving and taking and the petty negotiations and the thievery, too.

The book is written beautifully but not flawlessly, like the people who inhabit it. I listened to the book on my for the most part; when I read it, my eyes were distracted by spelling errors here and there. Nevertheless, this book is to the inner city in America what Dominique LaPierre's book City of Joy is to the slums of Calcutta. If you are ready to immerse yourself in that world and feel its beauty and power, you will definitely want to read it.