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ask the dust wikipedia jump to content main menu main menu move to sidebar hide navigation main page contents current events random article about wikipedia contact us contribute help learn to edit community portal recent changes upload file special pages search search appearance donate create account log in personal tools donate create account log in contents move to sidebar hide top 1 publication 2 synopsis 3 themes 4 reception 5 legacy 6 references 7 further reading 8 external links toggle the table of contents ask the dust 12 languages العربية čeština español فارسی français galego italiano македонски norsk bokmål português русский українська edit links article talk english read edit view history tools tools move to sidebar hide actions read edit view history general what links here related changes upload file permanent link page information cite this page get shortened url switch to legacy parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia novel by john fante this article is about the novel for the film see ask the dust film ask the dust first edition author john fante language english series bandini quartet genre roman à clef publisher stackpole sons publication date 1939 1939 publication place united states media type print hardback paperback pages 235 isbn 0 06 082255 4 oclc 63537603 preceded by wait until spring bandini followed by dago red ask the dust is the most popular novel of american author john fante first published in 1939 and set during the great depression era in los angeles it is one of a series of novels featuring the character arturo bandini as fante s alter ego a young italian american from colorado struggling to make it as a writer in los angeles the novel is widely regarded as an american classic regularly on college syllabi for american literature 1 2 the book is a roman à clef much of it rooted in autobiographical incidents in fante s life the novel influenced charles bukowski significantly in 2006 screenwriter robert towne adapted the novel into a film ask the dust starring salma hayek and colin farrell 1 publication edit initial publication of the novel followed fante s successful publication of wait until spring bandini and his short stories in prominent publications such as the american mercury 1 only 2 200 copies of the first edition of the novel were printed 2 although sales were not extensive a paperback edition was issued by bantam in 1954 2 the novel s popularity did not reach its peak until poet charles bukowski led the reissue of the novel by black sparrow press in 1980 alongside a foreword by bukowski 1 2 synopsis edit arturo dominic bandini is a struggling writer living in a residential hotel in bunker hill a rundown section of downtown los angeles living off oranges he unconsciously creates a picture of los angeles as a modern dystopia during the great depression era his published short story the little dog laughed impresses no one in his seedy boarding house except for one 14 year old girl judy destitute he wanders into the columbia buffet where he meets camilla lopez a waitress bandini falls in love with lopez who is herself in love with her co worker sammy sammy despises camilla telling bandini that he has to treat camilla poorly if he wants to win her over bandini struggles with his own poverty his catholic guilt and with his love for an unstable and deteriorating camilla camilla is eventually admitted to a mental hospital and moved to a second one before escaping bandini looks for her only to find her waiting for him in his apartment he decides to take her away from los angeles and arranges to live in a house on the beach he buys her a little dog and they rent a place in laguna beach he leaves her there to retrieve his belongings from his los angeles hotel room only to find the house empty when he returns he receives a telegram from sammy who requests that he come and retrieve camilla as she has shown up at the desert shack he has been living in and is getting on his nerves by the time bandini gets there sammy has thrown camilla out and she has wandered into the desert bandini looks for her with an agonizing fear that he won t find the woman he loves a fear that is soon realized he returns to sammy s shack and looks out at the empty desert land he takes a copy of his first novel that has recently been published dedicates it to camilla and throws it into the desert themes edit arturo bandini serves as fante s alter ego throughout the bandini quartet recurring themes in fante s works are poverty catholicism family life italian american identity sports and the life of a writer reception edit initial reception of the novel was mixed resulting in poor sales 1 distribution was hampered because fante s publisher was embroiled in a legal dispute over publication of an unauthorized version of adolf hitler s biography mein kampf that left it short of funds 3 legacy edit fante was one of the first writers to portray the tough times faced by many people in depression era los angeles citation needed robert towne has called ask the dust the greatest novel ever written about los angeles the american author charles bukowski cites john fante s work as a significant influence on his own writing in particular ask the dust which he had stumbled upon in the public library as a young writer 1 bukowski s enthusiasm for the novel helped ensure that the novel didn t fall into obscurity in the 1970s bukowski who befriended the older author towards the end of fante s life wrote a foreword to this novel for the black sparrow press reprint edition 1 bukowski states in this foreword fante was my god 4 bukowski chronicled their relationship in his short story i meet the master although in the story the author is referred to as john bante and his book is called sporting times yeah ask the dust contains thematic similarities to knut hamsun s 1890 novel hunger fante was a great admirer of hamsun the title ask the dust derives from knut hamsun s novel pan from 1894 in which lt glahn tells the story about the girl in the tower the other one he loved like a slave like a crazed and like a beggar why ask the dust on the road and the falling leaves ask the mysterious god of life for no one knows such things she gave him nothing no nothing did she give him and yet he thanked her she said give me your peace and your reason and he was only sorry she did not ask for his life in david foster wallace s 1987 novel the broom of the system lavache stoney beadsman has a wooden leg with a hidden drawer in which he keeps marijuana cigarettes and other illegal substances chapter 4 of ask the dust refers to a character named benny cohen who had a wooden leg with a little door in it inside the door were marijuana cigarettes he sold them for fifteen cents apiece references edit 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 woodard rob january 14 2009 how ask the dust nearly missed greatness the guardian retrieved july 10 2016 1 2 3 4 kellogg carolyn april 7 2009 john fante s ask the dust grows with time los angeles times issn 0458 3035 retrieved july 10 2016 how hitler nearly destroyed the great american novel december 21 2018 fante j 1980 ask the dust black sparrow press santa barbara introduction by charles bukowski further reading edit tayler christopher september 21 2000 bandini to hackmuth london review of books pp 28 29 issn 0260 9592 retrieved july 10 2016 cooper stephen donato clorinda eds 2020 john fante s ask the dust a joining of voices and views fordham university press external links edit wikiquote has quotations related to ask the dust short radio script from ask the dust at the california legacy project an annual festival honoring john fante is held in his father s birthplace torricella peligna italy v t e john fante the bandini quartet wait until spring bandini the road to los angeles ask the dust dreams from bunker hill films written it s all true unfinished 1942 youth runs wild 1944 my man and i 1952 jeanne eagels 1957 walk on the wild side 1962 the reluctant saint 1962 maya 1966 something for a lonely man 1968 film adaptations full of life 1956 wait until spring bandini 1989 ask the dust 2006 my dog stupid 2019 family joyce fante wife dan fante son authority control databases open library retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title ask_the_dust oldid 1359049124 categories 1939 american novels 1939 english language novels american novels adapted into films italian american novels novels set in los angeles novels set in deserts novels about writers novels by john fante roman à clef novels hidden categories articles with short description short description matches wikidata use mdy dates from march 2025 all articles with unsourced statements articles with unsourced statements from march 2009 this page was last edited on 12 june 2026 at 19 01 utc page was rendered with parsoid text is available under the creative commons 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