THE PIECE:
This is the opening to my novel SPOONFUL, which is set on the north side of Chicago during the late nineties. The piece is about the camaraderie and shared sense of purpose between two old friends who are down on their luck and desperate.
I hope the piece grabs you. Thanks for listening and special thanks to The Reading List for the chance to give my characters a voice that people can hear.
Enjoy!
Chris Mendius
THE BOOK:
Fiction: SPOONFUL is the wild story of Michael Lira and his friends - a tight-knit band of artists, dopefiends and has-beens who are all fighting for whatever they need to make it through another day in a world that's passing them by.
Set in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago during the gentrification boom of the late nineties, SPOONFUL is about Michael's attempts to grow up and join mainstream society. A working class guy pushing thirty, Michael gets by on petty crime, odd jobs and regular trysts with Lila, a free-spirited artist who strips to pay the rent and dates Michael's old friend Dante. Between feeding the monkey on his back and stealing away with Lila, Michael has what he needs, but it's not enough. He wants to "make a move, a real one." When Dante introduces him to a couple kids from Northwestern looking to score some blow, Michael sees his chance and he takes it.
He makes a bundle of money and puts it in the stock market after getting the hard sell from Paul, a shady broker who was once engaged to Michael's uptight older sister Fran. She warns him not to trust Paul, but Michael thinks he knows better. Everyone else is getting rich in the market. Why can't he? Sure enough, one hot tip leads to another until it all comes to a head in a bloody confrontation that sets the stage for another story.
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