Book #10 Week #10, Ask The Dust by John Fante

This week's book was a blast from the past, the way way past Ask The Dust by John Fante. This novel was a bit short for my liking at only 165 page but those short pages were wonderful! Much like Fahrenheit 451 I found the detail of simple moments a little overwhelming at times but it works.

Ask the Dust is a novel about young writer named Arturo Bandini set in 1930's Los Angeles. Arturo is a transplant to California, broke and facing eviction from the hotel he calls home. At times I thought Arturo was crazy, he goes back and forth from thinking so highly of himself to loathing and despair, but it becomes evident that he is just trying to find his way and what young person doesn't imagine they are the best at everything?

As if Arturo doesn't have enough problems he suddenly finds himself in love with a Mexican waitress he barely knows named Camilla. The two make for one destructive pair, Camilla is a bit wreckless and Arturo is down right racist at times (which made me want to smack a fictional character but he manages to explain his thoughts and regrets on the subject). Arturo is chasing dreams, not only the dream of being a great writer but also the dream of an unrequited love.

By the end the tale of Arturo Bandini really won me over. The ending left a lot to the imagination but it worked well in Ask the Dust. And here are two of my favorite quotes one funny and one serious:

"Bandini on the bed, put himself there with an air of casualness, like a man who knew how to sit on a bed."

"Sick in my soul I tried to face the ordeal of seeking forgiveness. From whom? What God, what Christ? They were myths I once believed and now they were beliefs I felt were myths." 

BTW in my google search I have learned there is a movie version of Ask the Dust staring Colin Farrell and  Salma Hayek. It has some iffy reviews, I wonder if I can find it.