Ask the Dust

I read Dreams From Bunker Hill prior to this and in conjunction with Ask The Dust made me really exited to read what they say is the best Arturo Bandini book Brotherhood Of The Grape. It kind of shows a darker side to Bandini, & his severely bad luck with women appears to compound itself often. He vaccelates from being a sympathetic figure of a character marked by impoverishment & dejection at the hands of invisibility to women to seeming to almost dig his own grave at times with erratic acts of passion run amok. Fante describes this book as being about a woman in his life he loved who did not recrocate, instead obsessing over a man who despised her. There were a lot of moments where I could laugh at just how cold or relatably nonsensical the world of this book is depicted as. Also came these moments of bitter sadness associated with how incompatible this world of Californians is towards the semi-religious temperament & creative zeal of Bandini. The theme of men being dicks to kindle the interest of women is strong in this, being presented as the key to Camilla's intrigue as a love interest. Bandini finds moments of cruelty in himself towards her in the pursuit of her love and attention, sometimes including moments of overt anti-hispanic racism or stranfely placed dickery, but readers who press on will find him invariably redeeming himself-a prisoner of his own affections for her, his Mayan Princess. The tragedy of this story is that try as he might the man cannot be himself & keep her, for every interaction with the flighty love interest ends with her in the arms of a man whose almost weaponized cruelty against her drives her progressively more insane and prone to substance abuse. Bandini is no feminists definition of a gentleman, but his cruelty runs thin around the charms of women he ultimately can't resist feeling sympathy for in their suffering. You find him remarking much upon sadness in the lives of girls who give him their time. The way in which incompetence in writing or cruelty in love is rewarded by women to his inferiors infuriates Bandini, so he houses himself in an almost smug certainty in his own artistic prowess. His art his his armor, and yet it takes many slings and arrows from the muses he uses. As someone who has tried to write before I related to a lot of the common struggles with writers block, fastened by the suffering of personal moral failings & unforgettably awkward/tragic experiences with society in the pursuit of love or even just mere survival. Though the ending was sad, it tied in with the pattern of the novel, which is making compromise with the tribulations of insanity, death, & misfortune without losing sight of what makes the possibilities of ones life worthwhile. If you're searching for an uplifting story, this is not your book. But if you find an honest depiction of failure, success, & how we accept them a compelling story telling device then you will be surprised and humored many times by this story.

A poor, aspiring young writer moves into a decaying, once-genteel roomimg house in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. Periodically on the verge of starvation, he nevertheless enjoys the warm climate of the city set next to a desert, works on his writing and looks at the stars. The stars tell him not to despair - that he's part of something vibrant and glorious. One fateful day he happens to go into a Mexican restaurant. In a letter to his cousin Fante described what happened as a result of that casual decision. He fell in love with a girl "who loved someone else, who in turn despised her. Strange story of a beautiful Mexican girl who somehow didn't fit into modern life...."
The protagonist, Arturo Bandini, becomes obsessed with Camilla; and as he does so he goes through various stages of love: from shallow attraction to infatuation to compassionate love. At the beginning of the book he's completely self-centered. By the end of the book his love for the girl is almost wholly unselfish. This is especially moving, since he realizes after awhile that he means nothing to her and that she's just been using him all along to try to get close to another man. This bitter realization doesn't prevent him from moving heaven and earth to try to save her, even after she has a nervous breakdown. Mental illness had a much greater stigma in the 1930s than it does now. I think it's safe to say that most young men of that era would have siimply given up and walked away. Instead, Bandini is prepared to devote his life to her.
As many reviewers have pointed out, "Ask the Dust" is a great Los Angeles book. In fact, the city itself - its streets, bars, cafes, boardinghouses, parks and skid row - is a major character in the book. The era the book describes is the 1930s, but as someone who lived near there thirty years later, I can attest to the timelessness of the feeling of the city. It's a strange mixture of gritty reality and poignant dreaminess. Fante captures this feeling perfectly.
"Ask the Dust" also has one of the most lyrical, and haunting - and saddest - endings ever written.
Some reviewers have been put off by the name-calling and ethnic epithets. Of course, Bandini would have been a more admirable character without them. But the writer's first duty is to tell the truth, even when it presents him in an unflattering light. And it's not what the book is about, any more than "Vanity Fair" is solely about Becky Sharp, Thackeray's great anti-heroine.
"Ask the Dust," like "Vanity Fair" and "Of Human Bondage,"examines a basic problem of human existence: why do we love the people who don't love us? Put another way, why can't we love the people who do love us?
And a larger question: why are some people doomed?
A door opens, so that they can escape from the hell they're in. They can't go through it.
Why?
Ask the dust.

Arturo Bandini comes to sunny Los Angeles to write the great American novel. Only problem is he doesn't feel very American. And Los Angeles is full of fogs, bad coffee, and displaced Midwesterners who butcher calves in fleabag hotels. Bandini, the narrator of Fante's thinly veiled autobiography, has only his talent and he's not shy about announcing it. For anyone who cares, anyone who will listen, he's right up there with the great ones. Step aside Faulkner and Steinbeck, Bandini has arrived. At his core, though, the little man of literature is a self-loathing slug. He loves himself, he hates himself. When he chances upon a Mexican beauty working in some cheap cafe, he finds the perfect target for all his bile. A trainwreck romance ensues. Bandini bangs out prose with unbelievable ease, but he can't defend himself against a torrent of petty degredations: the palm trees covered in dust, his own failure as an Italian in the Casanova mold. And his Aztec queen, the tormented Camilla, just can't get it together. The desert calls. Fante's novel is all about displacement, that gnawing feeling of not belonging to anyplace or anyone.

Just finished. It has a powerful ending; a great; haunting ending that leaves a sickness and a longing and a reminder about the dark side of life. Being a Bukowski fan, I had been meaning to read this, and am glad that I did. It wasn't so much like Bukowski - but i see where Bukowski got a lot of his sparseness and the ways in which he structured his sentences. I think Bukowski was much funnier and had better characters and some brilliant one lines and new ways of saying things - however - this book had a strong dark message that leaves one very aware of life at the end; powerful. It reminded me of the movie Vertigo (but not as clever), or of an old film noir; something with Humphrey Bogart, but more raw and real. Of course there's also Hemingway similarities, short sparse lines and a certain type of character - however, less math and repetition and beautiful scenes that go on for pages, although some of Fante's imagery is great and its all very real for the kind of story that it is - as a writer myself - when it comes to the actual style of the writing - it's very plain and not at all brilliant or unique. Many of his chapter openings hit hard but some of the chapters fall short, imo. There are a few great lines worth highlighting, but not enough - however - on the positive side - the story itself is very well executed, the characters are great, everything flows very smoothly, its short and easy to read and leaves one with a wide array of interesting feelings and thoughts, and for a man who's been through similar situations - its worth the read. However - I will say this - as a writer myself - I saw somebody saying that Arturo Bandini is warm, and gentle - I didn't take him like that, although he kind of appears that way - yet he's certainly more mean than he even comes off toward Camilla if you pick up on more of the subtleties - bitter for certain, long before he's blessed with her ending. The character really embellishes and builds himself up and sets himself apart from the other in a certain way, but I guess that's his macho character, in certain ways that I think draw from the story - he doesn't show his more lowly or vulnerable side as good as I think he should have - but that's ok - there is still an honesty in how he identifies with his emotions, being used and unloved and still giving and traveling on through the broken dreams - but I also think the author has a more deceptive side that only certain other writers would get.

Honestly, I read this book because I'm a huge fan of Lorn and he named one of his albums after this book, so I was curious. I'm glad I did, I truly recommend this book.

I do read a lot, and read a lot of fiction, and though I'd heard of Fante through Bukowski, I never read him until about a year ago. Years ago, when I tried reading Bukowski, it put me into a deeper depression than I had been in at the time, I read him at a VERY bad time in my life, and Ham on Rye is literally the only book I've ever thrown away, that's how much it affected me. So, since then, I was never drawn to this kind of literature.

But I decided to pick this book up last year. I've been listening to Ask the Dust (and all of Lorn's discography) on repeat for years and just became curious about the book and hoped it wouldn't put me in a depression like Bukowski did. Well, this book has stayed with me for a while now, in a positive way. I think about it, the atmosphere, the tone, the relatability of the characters. Beautifully written. Just a beautiful book. I've since picked up his other books, and have tried re-reading Bukowski and Kerouak, and others. New world of literature for me.

So, thanks Lorn!

John Fante's short novel,"Ask the Dust"(1939) is set in the Depression-ridden Los Angeles of the 1930s. It is a semiautobiographical novel which tells the story of Arturo Bandini, an inexperienced 20-year old who aspires to be a writer. Bandini, the son of Italian immigrants, has left his home in Boulder, Colorado to pursue his dreams of writing in a shabby area of Los Angeles. When the novel begins, Bandini has had one story accepted for publication the "Little Dog Laughed" of which he is inordinately proud. Dogs come to play a large role in the book even though they have no role in Bandini's first story. Bandini's editor, Hackmuth, is based upon the figure of H.L. Menken, and he offers Bandini great encouragement in his literary efforts.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, Bandini moves into a cheap, dilapadated hotel, the Alta Loma, in an area known as Bunker Hill. He struggles with writing, poverty, loneliness, sexual hunger, and with understanding his Catholicism. As the novel opens, Bandini is running out of money, owes back rent, and faces a writer's block. Bandini is also seeking, unsuccessfully, sexual experience with women.

The book revolves around the relationship between Bandini and a young Mexican waitress, Camilla Lopez, who works at an establishment called the Columbia Buffet. Lopez and Bandini are deeply attracted to each other yet their relationship explodes with hostility. The story explores the racial prejudices of both Bandini, with his reaction to Mexican-Americans and Camilla, with her envy and her own prejudice against children of immigrants. Camilla is in love with Sammy, a bartender at the Columbia Buffet.Sammy becomes terminally ill and still rejects Camilla. Camilla is addicted to drugs and suffers a severe emotional breakdown. Fante tells a story of love, frustration, rejection and sexuality. The story is bleak and sad as Camilla wanders into the desert alone with her dog and Bandini, hearbroken, becomes disillusioned with writing.

In the course of the story, Bandini meets and has a short affair with an older woman, Vera Rivken, who suffers from a terrible disfigurement. Bandini is able to move from the affair to write his first novel based upon his imagination of Vera's life.

This book is, for the most part, tautly and sparely written. On occassion, Fante adopts a lyrical, highly expressive and poetic tone. The book portrays beautifully the streets, cheap rooming houses, and dives of the poorer sections of Los Angeles. The secondary characters in the story, including the grasping landlady, Mrs Hargraves, Bandini's cadging alcoholic friend Hellfrink, and several prostitutes and dancing girls as well as its settings give the book a gritty feel of immediacy. An earthquake plays a pivotal role in the book. Bandini is an egotistical, naive young man and yet the reader becomes involved with him, as well as with Camilla,Sammy, and Vera. It is easy to understand why the underground novelist and poet Charles Bukowski together with many other writers was influenced greatly by this still comparatively little-known work.

Bandini's writing begins to succeed when he lets himself go and stops becoming stressed over attempts to forge a literary style over his typewriter. Thus Bandini's second story is in effect a long letter to Hackmuth which the editor turns into a publishable work by removing the greeting and salutation. In his reaction to the affair with Vera, Bandini quickly writes his first novel. In a mixture of egoism and insight, Bandini describes what he deems valuable in writing: "It won't shake the world, it won't kill a soul, it won't fire a gun, ah,but you'll remember it to the day you die, youll lie there breathing your last, and you'll smile as you remember the book. The story of Very Rivken, a slice out of life." (p.146)

In 2006, a movie of "Ask the Dust" was released which was adequate at best and does not do justice to Fante's novel.This short, multi-themed book of tough urban life deserves to be read. This edition of the book includes the introduction written by Charles Bukowski together with letters by Fante, early reviews of the novel and a Bukowski poem about Fante. "Ask the Dust" is a minor American classic.

Robin Friedman

OK, the writing is decent so I have to give it 3 stars for that, but for me to enjoy a story I have to have some empathy for at least one of the characters. These people are all pathetic. Chump Bandini repeatedly pursues two-faced Camilla who treats him with contempt and hatred. How many times do you have to get smacked in the face to know you're bleeding? If this is a love-hate relationship I missed any of the love part. I can feel the comparisons to Catcher in the Rye - the young, inexperienced hopeful writer and his search for meaning in the big bad city. But at least Holden Caulfield had an innocence and kind of charm - a much more appealing character who I still fondly remember after reading the novel more than 40 years ago. I doubt I'll remember Bandini next year. Maybe you have to be a kid in your 20's to like this book.

Beautiful, melodic language and a poignant character drive this novel, and I can see how those who might identify with Bandini and/or like the Hunter-S.-Thompson-style of story telling (seemingly aimless wanderings and interactions) would get something out of it. Not enough happened for me though, and I am not particularly driven to read any of the other Bandini stories.

Beautiful, melodic language and a poignant character drive this novel, and I can see how those who might identify with Bandini and/or like the Hunter-S.-Thompson-style of story telling (seemingly aimless wanderings and interactions) would get something out of it. Not enough happened for me though, and I am not particularly driven to read any of the other Bandini stories.

John Fante's most famous novel, "Ask the Dust", is an act of bravura for a writer, since it deals with this profession's struggles until he/she becomes a successful author. This writer is not afraid of depicting for his reader that there is no glamour for someone who wants to write and has to make ends meet at the same time.

His main character is Arturo Bandini, a young writer that in the 30s abandons his family and hometown and move to Los Angeles after his dream. Having published only a short story in a magazine, this man keeps looking for inspiration and trying to get money to pay rent, eat and so forth. He meets a beautiful Mexican waitress called Camilla, and eventually falls in love with her. But the problem is that she is in love with someone else-- but, at the same time, fancies going out with Bandini.

Eventually his life will find joy and sadness. Bandini has more of his work published, and makes more money. On the other hand, Camilla reveals to be a sick person and has a nervous breakdown. Apparently the main character can't have both things, love and success, at the same time. He won't give up his love, and he will do whatever it takes to help Camilla and have her love.

Fante's style is very direct with only a few flashbacks popping up from time to time. His characters are vivid and believable, and his writing is beautiful. Harper Perennial's P.S. edition of "Ask the Dust" is highly recommended since it has many especial features at the back of the book, such as writer's biography, letters and excepts from his novels.