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Ask the Dust

By John Fante, Charles Bukowski (Preface)

(128)

| Paperback | 9781841953304

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Book Description

Fiction. John Fante was born in Colorado in 1909 and began writing in 1929. He published numerous short stories, novels and screenplays in the following decades. ASK THE DUST, a coming-of-age novel set in Los Angeles, was first published in 1939. Says Charles Bukowski, in the preface to ASK THE DUSTContinue

Critics

Bandini to Hackmuth

Between 1938 and 1940, the Italian-American writer John Fante published three books. The first two – Wait until Spring, Bandini (1938) and Ask the Dust (1939) – were novels; the third, Dago Red (1940), was a collection of short stories. All three wer ... (read full critics)

lrb published on Sat, 4 Sep 2010

5 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

People usually give back the books they borrow from me. Not in this case. Guess they really liked it... Too bad, I did, too!

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Carolina Ramos said on Oct 24, 2007 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

If you have ever despised yourself and then fallen in love for a girl who was in love with someone else which you tought was worse than you and that pushed you toward (big or small doesn't matter) success ... than it will be impossible for you not to identify yourself with Arturo Bandini. Cynical an ... (continue)

If you have ever despised yourself and then fallen in love for a girl who was in love with someone else which you tought was worse than you and that pushed you toward (big or small doesn't matter) success ... than it will be impossible for you not to identify yourself with Arturo Bandini. Cynical and sensible. Humble and conceided to the point of thinking that the hole world revolves around him. Hurt and mean. Maybe there is something of Arturo in each one of us. Or, more likely, there something of each one of us in Arturo Bandini.
And it will be upon you to decide if the ending is an happy ending or not!

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NickBert said on Jul 30, 2007 | Add your feedback

Before I start the review I must say I'm totally a Fante's fan. I find this writer to be the most enjoyable of all I read. I can't imagine how could he have been forgotten for so many years. If I had to draw an analogy I'd say Fante is the Mozart of literature. They both have a well-defined personal ... (continue)

Before I start the review I must say I'm totally a Fante's fan. I find this writer to be the most enjoyable of all I read. I can't imagine how could he have been forgotten for so many years. If I had to draw an analogy I'd say Fante is the Mozart of literature. They both have a well-defined personality, and their art seems to be just as they meant to. Not a note in Mozart's music is unneeded, and neither is a word in Fante. Yes, as I've said, I much appreciate Fante's literature.
Ask the Dust is Fante's most famous book. And I can understand why. It's well-balanced, and between the wonderful beginning and the incredible ending everything written has a purpose, which is to build a very plausible frustrated love story of a young writer and a mexican waitress who, for her part, loves a man who doesn't love her back. In ask the dust you never have a gut feeling that you are reading chaff. Although love (and the writing process itself) are the main themes, Fante touches some other ones too: religion, poverty, immigration, and Los Angeles. This is said to be the best novel about LA in the 30's. Finally, what makes this novel so remarkable (and so other Fante's novels) is his fresh easy-to-read style and, above all, how it mixes in on paragraph, even a line, sadness, compassion, and laughs. Lots of laughs.
I really recommend Ask the dust, In my opinion, a must read.

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Arbequina said on Nov 7, 2011 | Add your feedback