Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"The Last Days of Video is, as the title suggests, an elegy for an era, but it's an era that's going out with a lot of kicking and screaming. Funny, raucous, and deliciously irreverent, Jeremy Hawkins' debut novel offers up an engaging cast of characters who bicker and lust and love their way through the roller coaster ride of Star Video's final days. This generous, big-hearted novel is a joy to read." Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Review
The Last Days of Video is smart and snarky and in the end downright sweet. Waring and Alaura and Jeff are all solid characters we root for and want to follow home. This book made me miss my snobby old store in Ithaca, and my Betamax. Its a feast for the cinephile. Well done." Stewart O'Nan, author of West of Sunset
Review
"Charming and fun, The Last Days of Video is a great debut." BookRiot
About the Author
Jeremy Hawkins earned an MFA in Fiction from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He is the founder and lead editor of The Distillery (distilleryediting.com), a web-based editing service. He is also an independent bookseller at Flyleaf Books and teaches creative writing at the Carrboro ArtsCenter. And of course, he worked for almost ten years at VisArt Video, a family-owned chain of video stores in Chapel Hill/Durham, NC.