Ask the Dust - by John Fante (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published: Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, c1980.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Either the work of John Fante is unknown to you or unforgettable. He was not the kind of writer to leave room in between." -- New York Times