“How To Beg For Cigarettes” by Matt Ponticello. ISBN
978-1-60264-215-7. (softcover) 286 pages. $14.95.
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 a park around here, 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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
During his college years, Matt got a position in a
major U.S. Corporation, where he rejuvenated a
company-wide, bi-monthly newspaper originally published
during World War II. He ran the successful newspaper for
more than 5,000 employees, until his retirement 23 years
later.
He later opened his own business, Matt’s Auto Body,
deep in an American inner city.
Today he is retired, and with family and friends,
recalls the disturbing events of those years, but laughs
about it now in his novel, How to Beg for Cigarettes.
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