Ask the Dust

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Summary: The single, most under-rated novel in literature.
Review: This book should be on the same pedestal as Catcher In the Rye, The Stranger, Point-Counter Point, to name a few. Unfortunately, due to various trivialities, it never will. However, for any scavengers looking to find that proverbial nugget of gold amonst heaps of junk (as Charles Bukowski has said), here it is.

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Summary: Easy to read, thought provoking.
Review: Thanks to Charles Bukowski for turning me on to Fante. Although never having personally met him (Buk), and never will in this lifetime, his frequent references to Fante in his writings have made me a devotee. Arturo Bandini's adventures are worth pursuing throughout the entire series.

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Summary: Yes it is a good book but.....
Review: I read the book and also thought it was good, but I didn't think it was THAT great. I guess it didn't quite pull me in that much......

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Summary: Great literature, deserves translation
Review: Everything above said about this book is true. Its truly sublime. For me as a german its not understandable, why this book isn't translated until now. IT DESERVES IT !

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Summary: Welcome To L.A.
Review: Palm trees often symbolize the glitz and glamour of the L.A. lifestyle, but Arturo Bandini's experience in L.A. involves a palm tree that has been tainted and abused by decades of smog and dust. His depiction of Los Angeles' flawed immigrant dream is sparkling with prose that is filled with his agony as a foreigner (he's from Colorado) in the Bunker Hill lifestyle. His new environment poses a problem to his Italian-bred Catholicism. When in a church, he asks God if he has read Nitchke, which I found to be one of the best depictions of post-modern "God vs. Humanity/Intellectual Thought" angst in any novel I've read. When reading any of the Bandini books, I sometimes think Bukowski is John Fante II: THE REVENGE. A great book for anyone who wants to know what every Angelino has in the back of their minds as they rollerblade through the smog.

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Summary: deserving of attention
Review: One of the most underrated great american novels of the twentieth century. More honestly american than wolfe and more elegant than bukowski (his disciple), Fante, and ASK THE DUST in particular, deserves to be inserted into the canon of great literature americana.

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Summary: Fante at his best; a precursor to Bukowski.
Review: How happy was I to find this book. Poor Arturo, a struggling writer (Chinaski?) chasing after Carmella. Every sentence speaks to you; Fante lays words out like raw meat and you savor the blood. I want more of Fante after this novel. You leave this novel feeling everything. A collision of comedy, sensitivity, love, loss, an opportunity never realized. "Ask the Dust" is for everyone. A standout in 20th century American fiction.

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Summary: ASK THE DUST will always be my favorite book.
Review: John Fante is quite possibly the least known of the great American writers. Mention his name to someone who hasn't read him and they will say they haven't even heard of him. Read one novel, particularly ASK THE DUST or THE ROAD TO LOS ANGELES, and you will wonder why you've never read him before. After reading ASK THE DUST, it is highly reccommended one read THE LETTERS OF JOHN FANTE AND H.L. MENCKEN for the story behind the novel.

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Summary: A truly profound look at the life of a would-be artist.
Review: Simply one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. A simple, beautiful and damn funny look at a young legend-in-his-own-mind writer, Ask the Dust captures the sweet and pitiful hell that is the life of the wannabee artist in early Los Angeles. Full of lost dreams and endless horizons, this book will make you laugh at your own sorrows and ache for the beauty of a fleeting glance from a sultry woman passing you by

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Summary: a poignant slice of a young man's life in 1930's L.A.
Review: Ask the Dust was my first taste of John Fante's work, and it has made me anxious to read much more of him. Fante describes the sensations of everday life for a struggling writer--the tastes, smells, textures, and thoughts--much like a young Steinbeck; you genuinely feel to be in the shoes of young Arturo Bandini, the narrator. Written in a simple, somewhat poetic prose, it is still deep in feeling. A very quick and easy read--yet extremely worthwhile and fulfilling as well