Ask the Dust (original 1939; edition 2006)

This book was devastating--the incisive prose haunted me every time I put the book down. Most authors are complete jerks as people and yet we need them-- I think this book is about that. ( )

Quite simply one of the best love stories I have ever read! Even though I found the protagonist faulty and ridiculous, it's those sort of traits along with Fante's ability to turn mundane prose into poetry that makes a reader like myself become smitten with the character. I would classify it as "A Love Story for Men" or for women who find themselves more interested in whiskey than in cosmos.
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skip the movie (I did) and get into Depression-era L.A. ( )

My Jewish Book Group read "Day of the Locust" (Nathanael West was Jewish)and I was looking for more L.A. classics. A review of that book in the L.A. Times mentioned two other Los Angeles books published in 1939, "Ask the Dust" and "The Big Sleep;" I hadn't read either one. So after finishing "Day of the Locust," I moved on to "Ask the Dust." John Fante could not be more different from Nathanael West and the two books are extremely dissimilar. I love them both, but "Ask the Dust" has something special -- a rare and fascinating glimpse into the life of a Latina in 1930's L.A. Camilla Lopez is infinitely more interesting than the male protagonist, Arturo Bandini, and her life is tragic.

Arturo Bandini is a published short-story writer and would-be novelist, who has come to the Boyle Heights neighborhood of L.A. The year is 1933, although Fante never states this fact. It is revealed by Arturo being in Long Beach during a major earthquake; that earthquake occurred on March 10, 1933, at 5:55 p.m. Arturo lives in a cheap hotel, writing all day and wandering dowtown L.A. He meets Camilla in a cafe where she is a waitress. Arturo is immature, rude, and racist. He is attracted to Camilla but like a 10-year-old expresses his attraction through insults.

The book actually has very little plot, but it has gorgeous, evocative prose, and it offers a glimpse into a lost world. It makes writing and publishing fiction look oddly easy, but it's autobiographical and told in the first-person; maybe when you are as good as Bandini/Fante that's how it works. I had the impression before I read the book that Camilla and Arturo fall in love, but that's not exactly what happens. They fall into a relationship; they are sexually attracted to one another, but I wouldn't call it love.

The book is relatively short and I was somewhat blind-sided by Camilla's rapid descent and the book's shocking, unsettling ending. Arturo has continued to pursue Camilla, wanting a more normal romantic relationship with her, but she is a drug addict and he is delusional about the possibility of a normal life with her.

I found myself comparing "Ask the Dust" with "Day of the Locust." The two books share few similarities. However, both books explore the seamier side of life in Depression-era L.A. and feature a cast of characters you wouldn't want to know. ( )

How is it that I never heard of quintessential Los Angeles author John Fante until now? St. Fante, the doomed Catholic romantic who presaged Kerouac as the steady-eyed chronicler among the invisible underclass of his generation. El Fante, the true spirit of LA, sitting up nights that refuse to cool down and typing madly in a white undershirt while his ashtray blooms and the smell of flowers on the hot wind makes the whole city smell like a funeral. Fante the bulldog—Bukowski before Bukowski had thought of it, or had given in to it—his spirit resilient against cops, and beautiful/crazy Mexican girls, and poverty. I mean, what the hell were they teaching us in school? If I had my way, I’d have kids read this book over and over. This is life: mad, frantic, desperate, and ecstatic. Neglect to read this at your own peril. ( )