Ask the Dust
Ask the Dust is the most popular novel of Italian-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 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.
Themes
Fante's most popular novel by far, the semi-autobiographical Ask the Dust is the second book in what is now referred to as "The Saga of Arturo Bandini" or "The Bandini Quartet". Bandini served as his alter ego in a total of four novels: Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938), The Road to Los Angeles (chronologically, this is the first novel Fante wrote but it was unpublished until 1985), Ask the Dust (1939) and, finally, Dreams from Bunker Hill (1982). The last was dictated to his wife, Joyce, towards the end of his life. Fante's use of Bandini as his alter ego can be compared to Charles Bukowski's character, Henry Chinaski.
Ask the Dust (film)
Ask the Dust is a 2006 American film based on the book Ask the Dust by John Fante. The film was written and directed by Robert Towne and remains, as of 2015, his last feature film. Tom Cruise (with Paula Wagner and Cruise/Wagner Productions) served as one of the film's producers. The film was released on a limited basis on March 17, 2006 and was entered into the 28th Moscow International Film Festival. It was filmed almost entirely in South Africa with the use of stages to portray Los Angeles.
Plot
The story is set during the Great Depression, specifically around the time of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Camilla (Salma Hayek) is a fiery, beautiful Mexican café waitress who aspires one day to be above her current standing in society, to make something of herself, to give her and her future children a place and chance in the world. Farrell's character is portrayed as a struggling writer who comes to Los Angeles's Bunker Hill area to start his writing career. Though he falls in love with Camilla, he does not marry her. Later, Camilla is infected by tuberculosis and leaves Arturo without informing him. When Arturo finds her, she is about to die and he promises to marry her, but Camilla dies and Arturo writes a novel dedicated to Camilla. Arturo writes a dedication in one of his books to her and throws it into the sand.
Podcasts:
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by Dada
Ask The Dust
by: Dada(What, what is it that you want?)
(What is it that you want?)
She don't lift her head for nothing
She don't lift her head for no one
30 years have glazed her eyes
Her tongue is dry from asking why
Why (why) all my ideas
Peel and turn to rust (why)
Why I feel I must
I guess I'll ask the dust
She's an American highway flower
Walking, blossoming into nowhere
Digesting tailpipes and babies' screams
To fill the hole that used to house her dreams
Why (why) all my ideas
Peel and turn to rust (why)
Why I feel I must
Guess I'll ask the dust
I guess I'll ask the dust
I guess I'll ask the dust
(solo)
(undecipherable whispering)
"I wonder what I'm doing here"
She asks the moon but he don't care
He's busy shinin' on the lucky
In the dark she swims toward nothing
Towards nothing
Why (why) all my ideas
Peel and turn to rust (why)
Why I feel I must
Why (why) all my ideas
Peel and turn to rust (why)
Why I feel I must
Guess I'll ask the dust