The Last Days of Video
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Video stores are dying. But most of you don’t care. You’ve got your Netflix and your DVR, so why deal with VHS tapes or scratched DVDs? Why deal with the grumpy guy at the worn-down independent video store?
That grumpy guy is Waring Wax, and he’s usually too drunk to worry about his declining business at Star Video, let alone his quickly evolving extinction in popular culture. But everything changes in his small college town when a bright and shiny Blockbuster Video opens nearby: Clearly, this means war. So, Waring enlists the help of his two reluctant employees, charismatic but conflicted Alaura and desperate virgin Jeff, to hatch a series of wild schemes to save their little store. Together, these three misfits try to save Star Video while confronting, among other things, Waring’s self-destructive tendencies, a life training cult, corporate bicycle gangs, and a Hollywood director who constantly sees the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock.
The Last Days of Video is a hilarious elegy for a bygone era, a quirky and charming story of redemption for a group of loveable cinema freaks, and a love letter to the art of the movies.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Hawkins's funny but derivative first novel, the year is 2007 and video stores are becoming dinosaurs. But in the college town of Appleton, N.C., Waring Wax, owner of Star Video, is determined that his failing store will survive. It doesn't help matters that he is constantly drunk, surly to his customers, and up to his eyeballs in debt. To make matters worse, his Christian distributor has just dropped him, the town council wants to turn his space into a community arts center and, worst of all, a Blockbuster Video has just opened up nearby. But Waring has a plan. It involves Match Anderson, a local boy turned Hollywood auteur, who has returned home to make his latest movie. But Match, it seems, is plagued by the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock and might be too distracted to help. The author has a good time gently poking fun at the video-store culture that produced Quentin Tarantino. But the author's other targets Christian zealots, box-store capitalism, and self-help cults seem like a leftover comedy routine. The novel seems to strive for a balance between nostalgia and quirkiness, but too often settles for the easy laugh.
