"Ask the Dust" by John Fante

Recommended to me by my love, "Ask the Dust" is set in the mid world war years of Los Angeles. Seemingly autobiographical, the story follows the budding author Arturo Bandini as he scrapes odds and ends together in an attempt to kickstart his writing career. I loved how this book described the Los Angeles of it's time with such specificity. It made me wish I could travel in time to visit the streets and sights of the era. Some of the references still exist and others have changed greatly but, nearly 90 years later, it was thrilling to imagine a day in the life of a migrant living hand to mouth in LA. Bandini has a complex relationship with his romantic counterpart Camilla. They only seem to enjoy one another when they behave terribly. He has his first sexual encounter with a woman who is then almost immediatly killed in a earthquake. Page by page, seeing how Bandini's relationships ebb and flow from intense need to overpowering hate, the reader develops a very real understanding of the life and times. Fante writes with strong prose and unparrelled transparency.