Literature │ Oh to be a Writer…
Ask the Dust by John Fante

John Fante 1909-1983, came from an impoverished background, and just like Ask the Dust’s protagonist, he escaped to California to write settling near Bunker Hill, making this piece of fiction semi-autobiographical. Fante touched upon many themes within this novel which he wrote in 1939, including the importance of identity, in this case, an Italian-American one. One notices the way in which Bandini emphasizes a number of times that he is an American.

From the outset, Fante’s words are full of brutal honesty, written with a strong male presence, each word is bold and sure unlike Arturo Bandini who is trying to make it as a writer in the cruel big wide world. Ask the Dust opens up with an introduction by Charles Bukowsi who proclaims Fante to be his God. One of the most important phrases within Bukowski’s pontification is when he declares that he himself at the time he read the novel was poor and “trying to be a writer.” Fante’s semi-autobiographical novel is an expulgence of wit and pain surrounding a young man desperately trying to slot himself through the smallest crack in to the literary world.

One of the most painful afflictions upon the human condition is loneliness, and one can feel Bandini’s / Fante’s / Bukowski’s loneliness from the introduction until the last chapter. One becomes aware of the loneliness that shrouds most of the beauty in creation, because at the end of the day, when one breaks everything down with a novel or a piece of art, all that’s left after it’s sent forth into the world is the loneliness of the creator and the creation, there’s simply no space for anything else.

If one is to pinpoint the essence of this novel, they would find themselves contemplating the concept of faith. Faith, hope and sometimes sheer hard headedness are what keep one going in a world in which another hurdle is thrown in front of you after just making it over the last one. One of the most laughable remarks made in this book is when someone tells Bandini that it is easier now to publish a book, because in the old days it was about knowing the right people, this is funny, because it still is. For the majority of us, let us say 98% of us, it is about being in the right place at the right time. If this novel is to hold any meaningful message, it is this; it is to hang in there, because you just never know.

©Zehra Mustafa