#235 | What Can John Fante’s ‘Ask the Dust’ Teach Us About Love, Loss, and Life’s Purpose?
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti dives into the timeless allure of John Fante's 1939 classic, "Ask the Dust." He unpacks the novel's profound themes of loss, love, poverty, and the pursuit of life’s meaning, highlighting its semi-autobiographical nature, and its lasting impact on the literary cult hero Charles Bukowski and iconic screenwriter Robert Towne. Vigliotti also offers insights into Fante's career, Depression-era Los Angeles, the prose, book title, publishing history, and its lovable protagonist, the struggling writer, Arturo Bandini.
Listen to the episode:
*Subscribe to The Books for Men Newsletter, a monthly round-up of every episode with full book and author info, all the best quotes, and newsletter-only book recommendations!
TOPICS COVERED IN the EPISODE:
Introduction to "Ask the Dust" (00:09) - Douglas introduces the classic novel "Ask the Dust" by John Fante, published in 1939.
Douglas's New Book Announcement (01:10) - He shares information about his book "Aristotle for Novelists," focused on storytelling principles.
Author Overview (01:30) - Douglas discusses John Fante's background and his significance in literature, particularly the Bandini Quartet.
Influence of Charles Bukowski (02:13) - He explains how Bukowski was influenced by Fante and helped revive interest in "Ask the Dust."
Publishing History (03:19) - The challenges faced by the book's initial publisher and the eventual boost from Bukowski's efforts.
Plot Summary (04:28) - Douglas summarizes the plot, focusing on protagonist Arturo Bandini's struggles and themes of love and meaning.
Character Analysis (05:51) - He discusses Bandini's character and the narrative style, emphasizing the first-person perspective.
Semi-Autobiographical Nature (07:12) - Douglas explores how Bandini serves as Fante's alter ego, paralleling Bukowski's character Henry Chinaski.
Prose Style Discussion (08:19) - He analyzes Fante's unique prose style, blending conversational and literary elements effectively.
Bittersweet Ending Insights (09:46) - Douglas highlights the novel's bittersweet ending, raising existential questions about love and meaning.
Conclusion and Call to Action (11:22) - He thanks listeners, encouraging them to subscribe and provide feedback on the podcast.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So. This week I have a piece of literary fiction to share with you. It is a classic work, so originally came out in 1939, since it's been published by a few different publishers, and that story is pretty interesting in its own right, something I will share with you. But the name of the book is called “Ask the Dust” and it's by John Fante. It clocks in at around 200 pages or so, depending on what edition you end up reading. Of course, I will share more about that, as well as the author, the story, and some of my larger takeaways. But first, as always, I just wanted to quickly remind you about my new book, which is out “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. If you are interested in telling a story at all, whether it's on the page in your life on the screen, any of those, all of those were pretty much all trying to tell a story in some fashion.
01:10 - Then that book will probably have some relevance for you, and if you're interested in it, you could find out more information about it on the website Aristotle for Novelists.com. All right. So now let me jump back into the work at hand. “Ask the Dust” by John Fante. So who was the author? He's written I think it's about nine novels, 3 or 4 short story collections, and also a handful of screenplays. I've never seen any of his movies, but one was an adaptation of one of his novels, “Full of Life”. But far and away, he's most prominently known for the work that I am sharing with you today, “Ask the Dust”, which not only spawned the character Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer who would be the central protagonist in another three of his novels. So it's called the Bandini Quartet, and this is the first book in that series, but it also was a widely influential book. It's actually how I came to the work of John Fante via one Charles Bukowski, someone who has been featured on this podcast.
02:13 - The book specifically “Ham on Rye”. I don't remember what year or month we shared that on, but maybe I'll link it up in the show notes if anyone's interested in checking out that episode, he cites him as being a huge influence on him and his work, which makes a lot of sense. If you have read any Charles Bukowski work, something that I will talk a little bit more about when I get into some of my larger takeaways. And actually the copy of the dust that I have. There's an intro by Bukowski who republished this book 40 years later with his indie press Black Sparrow, to give it its boost and help it achieve a wider spread popularity. What's really interesting about this book's publishing history is that when it first came out in 1939 from a small publisher called Stackpole and Sons, its distribution was hampered quite a bit because the publisher was embroiled in this scandal for publishing an unauthorized version of “Mein Kampf”, which is pretty crazy and interesting of a story if you go back and read about it.
03:19 - But anyway, this hurt the distribution for the dusk, and so it kind of got lost in the shuffle with everything else. And it wasn't until Bukowski championed it 40 years later that really gave it its boost into, I don't want to say the mainstream, because I don't think it was ever quite that popular, but just shedding light on the work and putting it in the minds of potential readers and other artists and writers, eventually becoming a seminal work in the literary canon for its depiction of depression-era LA. Something that I will talk about when I talk about the plot in just a moment, but there is also a movie adaptation done by the great Robert Towne, who, of course, wrote “Chinatown”, which is one of my favorites among many other movies. But he adapted the movie starring Colin Farrell. I've never seen it. I've heard it's bad, but for what it's worth, many consider the novel, not the movie. including town to be one of the greatest LA novels of all time. Having said that, what is the book all about? So, in short, as I just mentioned, it is set in depression-era LA.
04:28 - So sometime in the 1930s about a struggling writer lover boy, Arturo Bandini, who falls madly in love with this woman who is not without her own issues. And basically she up and disappears, leaving him in a tailspin of sorts, making him question the writing life. And even in the wake of having his first novel published, he's questioning what's the point of all of this If women or this woman could do this to him. And the core attention is really that he spent so much of his life fighting to attain this life, only to have it shattered by love, or the idea of love, or the feeling of love. Thematically, it does delve into Italian American life, poverty, love, loss, and probably most importantly, finding meaning, which is sort of a nod to the title. At least my interpretation of Ask the Dusk is its existential meaning when it comes to trying to find meaning in the pointlessness of a harsh world, so to speak. And of course, this character, Arturo Bandini, learns this in his dealings with this unstable woman in the face of achieving some type of material success in the publishing of his novel.
05:51 - Of course, I don't want to let Arturo Toro Bandini. And if you notice that I'm kind of smiling when I say his name because he's a kind of humorous character in a way. And if you read the book, you'll get that feeling. Maybe that's what makes him so appealing. But anyway, I don't want to let him off the hook too much because his problems are mostly self-inflicted. We also don't get the perspective of the female in this story, although it is quite clear that she's got a whole slew of issues that she's trying to work through in her own life, it's quite possible that Arturo Bandini added to those. But this is a story about him, not her. And I think that the first-person narration, with linear storytelling in the fashion that this story is told, actually helps the story a lot more than it hinders it, with a lack of other people's perspective. Having said that, I think it leads into the takeaways quite well. The first one is that this is often said to be a semi-autobiographical novel, and Arturo Bandini is really the alter ego of John Fante, which, of course, is exactly what Charles Bukowski did with his work, and Henry Chinaski, who is said to be the alter ego of Charles Bukowski.
07:12 - So literally one might be able to conclude that without the work of John Fante, you wouldn't have the work, or at least not in the way you have it, of Charles Bukowski, who, of course, has since become this cult hero. I would say in the writing community, or at least having a cult following even to the present day. And because of that, there are a lot of people who would go on to be inspired by him. And so there was this whole chain of work that I think would have never existed without that first domino, which, of course, is this book and Arturo Bandini. The second big takeaway that I want to share is just the style of prose. As I had mentioned earlier it is told in first person with straight linear plot sequencing. And I think that any time somebody does this, what you trade off in layers or so, how deep a novel can go, right? Layers, you gain an urgency. And I know this firsthand because I wrote my first novel, “Tom Collins”, in that same fashion, trying to leverage that same quality.
08:19 - And indeed, this is what font does. But even more so, his prose has a very unique quality in that it's both conversational and literary. And I think that when you juxtapose those two things, it confusing a bit to the mind because something that is conversational or perhaps even jovial at times, how could be serious and literary. But when you really grapple with the things that he's talking about and saying on a deeper level, you realize how literary the work actually is. And I think oftentimes we could confuse and I'm using air quotes literary writing with things that are lyrical, wordy, I don't know all that stuff. But to me, literary writing is more writing that handles bigger themes within the work and is not afraid to tackle those ideas and themes throughout and stylistically. How a writer achieves that, whether it's lyrical or conversational or hardboiled or what have you, is just a style element, and the literary aspect has to do more with the thematic relevance of what the author is depicting. And to me, in this work, he's juxtaposing conversational writing with literary themes.
09:46 - I mean, there's literally nothing deeper than writing about the existential meaning of life. And so it's hard to say that the work wouldn't be literary, despite the fact that it's done in a very conversational tone, which, by the way, makes it very entertaining and something that I think you would enjoy reading. All right, so that brings me to the final takeaway that I want to share with you. And it has to do with the ending. And I'm not going to ruin it for you because I want you to go read the book. But I will say it features perhaps my favorite quality in a work of art, and that is bittersweet. I love it when work is done in a way that is satisfying, but also a bit troubling. Or, as Ken Follett has said about resolutions and endings, when a work answers the question but begets another question, and in this sense maybe a larger question of the novel is answered, but it opens up an entirely new set of bittersweet sweet questions that the reader will have to deal with things like how do you love someone who doesn't want to be loved? Or perhaps is broken and unwell? What role do you play in that? Or just what is the meaning of life if it's not the thing that you think it is? I will leave you with one quote from the book that is very short, but I love it because it gets at what I am sharing with you to close this, and it is with her there.
11:22 - It was part of a dream without her. It was a house. Okay, so that's all I've got. I want to thank you so much for listening and remind you that if you enjoyed this episode or any of the episodes too, please click the subscribe button on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on as a 1A to that, take two seconds and rate the podcast. Either one of those goes a long way in helping more people find the show, and in return, inspires more men to read. Also, if you want to tell me what you thought about this episode or any of the episodes, then please reach out to me. And there are two ways that you can do so, either on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti. It's the only social media that I have or on my website DouglasVigliotti.com. As I mentioned at the top of this episode, I do have a new book out and it's titled “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. If you want to find out more about that, you can on the website AristotleforNovelists.com. The link for all of that stuff will be in the show notes. As always, I wanted to end this by thanking you so much for listening and reminding you that if you want more information on the podcast, which includes signing up for the monthly newsletter, all you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org.
