The Ask **1/2

By Sam Lipsyte.
Published in 2010 by Farrar, Staus and Giroux, New York.
296 pages.

I first heard of this book in the pages of a popular music magazine.  I don't remember - maybe it was Mojo or Uncut,  but it got good reviews so I took it out from the local library.  And of course since it was reviewed by a major music magazine, most likely the book would be considered "edgy".or hip  So what does "edgy" mean?  Well if you were to use this book as an example "edgy" you would say its a book in which the main character is a screw up.  It  has lots of humor, sex (talk about sex in this one at least - not so much sex) and the abuse of substances taken as a natural course of things.  The last three (sex, humor, substance abuse) don't surprise me but the screw up, irresponsible characters do surprise me a little.  I see it as a pattern.  In Rocket Man (see review several weeks back) the character is like that too.  Like the character in this book, Milo, just doesn't fit in.  Though I guess those types of characters are sort of slackers, and slackers have a certain (perceived) hipness in literature and especially film .

So the story goes that Milo works for a university (Mediocre University) trying to get donors to contribute to that university.  The process of getting those donations is called the Ask.  Actually getting the donations is called the Give.  Milo is not so good at his job and he gets fired after scolding and insulting a young female student whose daddy has big money.  He then gets  an offer to return in spite of all this because an old friend who is rich (Purdy) has asked that Milo service him in his Give.  So Milo gets another chance.

Meanwhile, he's pining for his glory days when he was a painter and was (supposedly) destined for glory - so he's bitter.  He's lost his job and his marriage is in trouble and he's having a rough time.

The book goes off on a lot of tangents and rants which are kind of fun, but it does get a little convoluted and out of left field at times.  One of the more interesting ideas, and he ends his book with this, is the idea of parallel worlds verses the here and now.  In his parallel world, he becomes a famous painter and his marriage works, his future is bright.  haven't we all had thought like that.  "What if..." But no he's in the here and now, which still isn't looking so hot (not a happy ending to the book - not very hopeful) "I was digging in for the long night of here." he says.

Eventually the plot does pick up after all the flashbacks and meandering (not necessarily a bad thing and kind of fun) that takes place in the 1st half of the book and it is discovered that Purdy has a bastard son (Don) by a woman he was in love with during college whose mother had died and Purdy is trying to keep it hushed.  This is the reason that Purdy wanted Milo to take care of his Give.  The narrative definitely starts moving at this point.

This is a fun book and there are some splendid ideas to null over here.  An over all enjoyable read.

Here's a reading by the author.