New Book, New Opinion

In the novel “Ask the Dust” by John Fante, I have to be honest that it does not please entirely.  Don’t get me wrong, it is full of great figurative language and thoughts, but it does not seem to sit as well with me as the last two books did.  I think the first few chapters are relatively slow and it is hard to get into the plot.  I think the character, Arturo Bandini, is very pretentious and likes to complain about his problems.  The introduction written by someone else made the book seem so full of emotion that I would want to “climb into bed and read it” all the way through.  This was not the case, but once some more characters were introduced after a while the book started to pick up.  Arturo met Camilla, who I thought was the more relatable of the two, and had some nice thoughts of her, but never treated her quite with respect.  Once he called her a “Greaser” and left her alone on the street, I pretty much lost all respect for the character.  I hope the plot becomes more identified and that Arturo starts to obtain better emotions, especially to women, as I read on in this book.