The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins

They careen from one encounter to another, propelled by a generous dose of nostalgia, loud humor and narrative energy, but they’re given the depth to make casually beautiful phrases ring true. The plot is often ridiculous and has a whiff of enthusiastic camp, but the characters have enough heart and vivid imperfections to make their story irresistibly engaging, even when they find their lives plunging toward slightly outdated small-town miseries.

With the help of two faithful employees-the beautiful, prickly Alaura and the awkward and virginal Jeff-he sets out to save Star Video with a series of increasingly ridiculous schemes that thrust the three of them into the presence of corporate bullies, the cultlike Reality Center and a famous film director who's in town to make a movie while secretly plagued by Alfred Hitchcock’s ghost. When a Blockbuster opens 50 yards away, the threat to Waring's livelihood and only true home turns dire. Waring Wax is the unhappy, unpleasant, frequently drunk owner of Star Video, a video rental store with an impressive collection of titles and oddball employees and a business that, in 2007, is slowly getting strangled by the growing presence of Blockbuster and Netflix. In this funny, surprisingly tender debut novel, Hawkins tells the story of a misfit group of video-store employees whose efforts to save their beloved shop offer the reader a cast of lovable oddities and a streak of infectious adoration for the power of movies.

The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins