Description
New and Improved! Most people believe owning a business is a walk in the
park. Sure, it can be, if it's a charming little donut shop in the
country. However, not in this case! Matt Ponticello retires early from
the comfort and security of the corporate world and opens an auto body
repair shop deep in the inner city. "Yeah, take a walk in the park
around here, that's if you can find one, and see how long you last
before you're mugged for cigarettes and loose change." So begins
How to Beg for Cigarettes, the story of one business owner's hilarious
"laugh-a-mile-a-minute" romp through the bowels of the inner city, where
he finds a real and sometimes surreal cast of characters, with a city, a
business, and a staff of employees to match. Amidst the daily dangers
and confrontations in this harsh environment, he struggles with his own
personal battle - whether to stay in business and suffer an inevitable
nervous breakdown or return to the calm of retirement. From petty
theft to murder, Ponticello rummages through America's inner-cities,
searching for the humor and "good" in even the worst-case scenarios,
taking a romantic pride in the city's dangers - genuine and predictable -
and approaches a six-block walk for coffee every morning as if it's an
epic adventure filled with peril.
