The Ask

The Ask (2010) by Sam Lipsyte. The ask is what a fund-raiser for a non-profit college extends to a potential donor. The protagonist of this novel, Milo Burke, is a failure at the ask, and early in the book he is fired from his job as a fund-raiser for a mediocre New York City university. The plot of the book scarcely matters, however, as it is the verbal fireworks of Lipsyte that really make the book what it is. The language is so dense, so finely crafted, that at first it is hard to follow. But once I got into the flow of the book, I was continually delighted by Lipsyte's turns of phrase, by his angled insights into the modern human condition. This is a great little book. Grade: A-