Spitting off tall buildings - Dan Fante

Bruno Dante, aspirant playwright, part-time depressive and long-time drunk has hitch-hiked cross country. Escaping the sunshine, have-a-nice-day culture of LA, for the more cynical climate of New York.
He should fit right in. But if there's money for beer he's sure to fuck up.
A rut of deadbeat tempting jobs follow. But Dante won't play office politics or kiss ass. So they don't last long. Longer stints as the night manager of a run-down hotel, a window cleaner and, finally, a cabbie, are punctuated by whacked-out affairs, drinking binges and bouts of depression.
Beautiful and brutal in equal measures, Fante's insights are fiercely compelling, desperately compassionate and obscenely funny. This is utterly unmissable.