"Ask the Dust"@en . "63537603" . . "ISBN 0-06-082255-4" . . . . "Ask the Dust is the most popular novel of Italian-American author John Fante, first published in 1939 and set during the Great Depression-era in Los Angeles. It is one of a series of novels featuring the character Arturo Bandini as Fante's alter ego, a young Italian-American from Colorado struggling to make it as a writer in Los Angeles. The book is a roman \u00E0 clef, much of it rooted in autobiographical incidents in Fante's life. The novel influenced Charles Bukowski significantly."@en .