LAST ACTS, by Alexander Sammartino
Alexander Sammartino’s exceptional, hilarious debut novel, “Last Acts,” is the tale of two salesmen in Phoenix: David Rizzo and his estranged son, Nick. Both men’s lives are floundering. Rizzo Sr. is drowning in debt and about to lose his firearms store because of several failed moneymaking and promotional schemes; his son has drifted from a gig-economy career as a digital marketer to become a full-time heroin addict.
As the book opens, David is on his way to a meeting with a real estate tycoon, who might be willing to purchase his store before it’s foreclosed on, when he gets a call from his son. Nick is in the hospital, recovering after a brush with death from an overdose. More than a year has passed since they last saw each other, but Nick has nowhere else to turn.
Thrown unwillingly together, the pair embark on a plan to save the father’s business, which will take them on a merry-go-round of success and disaster. Sammartino switches perspectives between this odd couple: The father, a lifelong wheeler-dealer who has sold cars, “never-dulling knives” door to door, recyclable IV bags to hospitals and Shasta Jacuzzis to hotels, is an eagerly self-deluding, Willy Loman-esque optimist soaked in flop sweat, whose fondest hope is to be “more than another guy whose life came up soul-crushingly short.” The son, meanwhile, is possessed by an ineffable, listless sadness, “staring at a search bar without knowing what to type,” and churning out internet promotional copy for small businesses like Pretty Paws Doggy Treats and PHX Home Hospice (“Dying is hard. We make it easy”).
But like his father, he too has a dreamer’s spirit, and he comes up with an idea for an inspirational, confessional infomercial that features his own overdose as its selling point and promises a cut of every sale to rehab centers and halfway houses:
What separates us from all the other gun dealers in the desert, though, is our commitment to combating opioid addiction. … I’m a recovering addict. … My father, David Rizzo, has made it his mission to be the first gun shop in America that aims for a social good. So come on in and tell us your story. At Rizzo’s Firearms, we’re shooting addiction dead.
When this unlikely advertisement strikes a chord with the gun-buying public, Nick and his father become local business celebrities — though soon enough, Rizzo’s Firearms finds itself at the center of a circus of controversy.
