Customer Reviews

The Ask

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Lipsyte is a master with words. While sometime it can read like a mouth dump on the page, there is inimitable creativity, wit and humour embedded in every paragraph. He truly conquers each and every page with his sardonic view of the world vicariously voiced by our sort-of protagonist, Milo Burke - a living product of a fine arts degree in a recession America. And while Lipsyte's pen is so sharp, his story-telling comes up short. This is a book you read to marvel at the prose rather than a book you read for its story.

Having noticed The Ask on several listings of the Top 10 Novels of the year which laud the dark humour in Lypsyte's novel, I was disappointed. The pathetic ramblings of Milo, an invariable looser, showed little that was amusing or insightful. The associated characters were vague. Not worth your time.

Acerbic humour characterizes the monologues and dialogues of the main character, Milo Burke, as he attempts to understand life as a semi-employed fund-raiser for a low-level university suffering the hard-times of an economic down-turn. To hang onto his already pathetic position of employment, he must successfully "ask" and receive a donation from an old classmate he despises. His relationship with his wife is on the skids and his aspirations as an artist have come to naught. Milo sows his own seeds of destruction snuffing out any opportunities to improve his circumstances through pride and belligerence. It's all rather bleak. Like many character-driven novels, plot often suffers as the author allows his characters to dodge and swerve dependent on his mood of the day. Characters are introduced, forgotten and then returned to the story long after they've been forgotten. Eventually, I believe Mr. Lypsite tires of Milo, his main character, and just telling the resolution rather than finishing the story. The Ask is a lot of dialogue with a questionable but generally a fun and satisfying read.