Ask The Dust by John Fante

John Fante’s Ask The Dust

I was turned onto John Fante around 6 months ago when I attended a show at Strange Brew in Austin, TX to see a local solo artist by the name of Matt The Electrician. Matt, The Electrician, was dually playing with a country-ish solo artist by the name of Joe Pug. Matt would play a song, then Joe would play a song, then they would have some conversation, then Matt, then Joe, and the night continued on in this fashion.

Somewhere in the midst of one of their conversations, Matt gave Joe a gift.  The gift happened to be a book by John Fante. In explanation of the book, Matt mentioned that John was on Black Sparrow Press (same as Charles Bukowski). This is what sparked my interest in the author. The simple fact that John Fante and Charles Bukowski had played for the same team.

Months later, I finally found one of Fante’s books in a Half Price Bookstore. It was Ask The Dust.  I began to read it toward the end of my band’s tour and just finished it last night.

On the first read of any book I have, I like to dive straight in with no expectation. Did my best not to look at the cover or read the back. That’s how real art should be interpreted by your own honest opinion. So upon diving straight into Ask The Dust, I was affronted by an introduction by another author. I read the entire introduction to find that it was none other than Charles Bukowski himself who wrote the introduction. That’s all I needed to see to keep me interested.

The book turned out to be a solid take on one man’s desire for a woman who loves another man. That is the only truly interesting thing about the story. What makes the book fantastic, and what makes John Fante so different from Charles Bukowski, is the positively poetic way Fante describes a scene. Sure, there is plenty of hatred, disgust, and self-loathing throughout, but Fante also captures the beauty of a sunset coming up over the ocean or how adorable a newborn puppy can be. He doesn’t leave any detail out, nor let his characters own emotion get in the way of what is really happening in the book, even if he is the narrator. I found that to be an honest way of writing.

I also saw a soft spot in Fante that I rarely see in Bukowski (although I did see it when I read Women).  It was only my first time reading a Fante novel, but if I had to guess, he was a sucker for love.

All in all, I would recommend this book.

-Chase Spruiell