The Ask
Author: Sam Lipsyte
Publisher: Picador
Price: $29.99 (paperback)
If you don't laugh, you'll cry
The definition of failure – waking up one day and realising that this is as good as it gets. You are not going to have the life you wanted because that seems to have landed in the lap of your best mate from uni, a trust fund baby who doesn’t appreciate it. You are instead relegated to a day job that strips your of your self-worth but ensures you have somewhere to go between breakfast and dinner each day. The only glimmer in an otherwise dull existence is the donut selection at the local deli and the promise of a shag with your uninterested wife.
This
is the life of Milo Burke.
I am happy. I really am. I’m just spent. You know I collapsed? I collapsed from happiness. I had to be hospitalized.
Milo has given up his dream of becoming a famous painter to solicit funding (known as ‘The Ask’ ) from the New York elite to financially support the art program at a mediocre university. One morning Milo is pushed too far and lashes out at the spoiled daughter of a fat cat donor and is fired for ‘hate speech’.
Why give to us? Why not give to the truly needy - the bombed out, the starved down, the families running from butchers on horseback. Or folks whose fate depends on whether they can score a fucking shovel and a bag of seeds.
He only just begins to enjoy unemployment and extra time with his son Bernie (who many of the best lines are reserved for) when it is cut short and he is called back to make ‘The Ask’ of that best mate from uni who got the life Milo wanted.
In terms of plot, there is really not much going on but the storyline is beside the point. This book explores relationships. The relationships we attempt to navigate every day sometimes with success sometimes without - relationships with a partner, a child, a boss. The Ask attempts to sort through the clutter that we find filling our brains and we are not sure how it got there or what purpose it serves.
No I mean if I were the protagonist of a book or a movie it would be hard to like me, to identify with me right?
I would never read a book like that Milo. I can’t think of anyone who would. There is no reason for it.
Oh, but there is and why? Because Sam Lipsyte is a gifted writer and as such grabs you by the ankles and drags you through this story on a leash of searing wit, brutal humour, and language that wouldn’t be out of place at a biker convention. It is in-your-face, crass and heartbreakingly sad. The Ask is challenging, thought provoking, silly but serious and importantly a bloody good laugh.