Ask the Dust (P.S.)
by John Fante
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Book Summary Information
Author: John FanteEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-02-01
ISBN: 0060822554
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Book Reviews of Ask the Dust (P.S.)
Book Review: I'm ambivalent
Summary: 4 Stars
Narrators with a touch of bipolarity give this reader trouble. On one page, they are superior, dismissive, and smug; on the next, they are hysterically dependent, remorseful, and wretched. As a reading experience, such narrators seem like artificial constructs, as well as extremes of inconsistency that never quite come together. For this reason, I had trouble with A FAN'S NOTES, HUNGER, and ASK THE DUST. These books give the feeling the author never quite mastered the material.
In AtD, this bipolarity undermines the engine that powers the book--the strange romantic relationship that Fante establishes between Arturo and Camilla. Here, Arturo, the narrator, is infatuated with Camilla. He yearns for her when he is alone. But in her presence, he is cruel and condescending. Basically, this dynamic--he's in love; he's a monster--moves the story forward. But this dynamic constantly raises a question: Why doesn't Camilla just drop this obnoxious oaf? What I'm saying is that, on the level of character, this odd romance is improbable, as well as annoying.
The ambivalence in this relationship, however, does make better sense on an abstract level. Here, Arturo is a young writer who comes to LA with dreams of literary success. Consistent with his personality, Arturo feels both contempt and pathos for others who come to LA with dreams but fail. In this context, Fante makes Camilla stand for both the natural beauty of Southern California, as well as the desert near LA, which has a deracinating effect on life in city. When viewed this way, Arturo's battling infatuation with Camilla makes sense, since he is accommodating himself to something that's beautiful but difficult and that he wants to conquer. Still, this is an element in the book--to be puzzled out by a conscientious reader--that lacks emotional impact.
Maybe it's a SPOILER. But I recklessly disclose that Arturo does have some success late in AtD. But once this happens, the push and pull of story disappears and Fante has to force an ending. Regrettably, this is melodramatic with the young Fante apparently writing about something--hopheads--that is beyond his experiece. Here, clueless is an apt word.
Final Note: In my edition, Charles Bukowski wrote the introduction and it's terrific.
Summary of Ask the Dust (P.S.)
Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.
This book is another sterling recommendation from the Saltzman workshop. The under-appreciated Fante's second outing details the adventures of his alterego, Arturo Bandini, as the struggling young writer tackles Los Angeles in the late 1930s. And take it from personal experience, tackling L.A. as a destitute young scribe some decades later isn't much different. In other words: Fante gets it right and sets it down in his Chianti-steak-and-potatoes style, with prose both simple and rich. This Black Sparrow edition has a bonus: Charles Bukowski's great preface on how Fante stacks up against writers that were at once more famous--and far more anemic.
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