Book Review: The Ask

The Ask
By Sam Lipsyt

This was one of my wildcard books. Sometimes I pick a book by its cover, the location of the story, the genre, but this one was picked by a subject near and dear to me - philanthropy in higher education. I thought it was a bonus that the story took place in New York and I was hoping for the best. Thing is, wildcard picks rarely go well.

This book was pretty lame. The protagonist is the king of all tools mixed into a story jammed tight with other terrible characters. He's a sleazy, pile of crap that I have no sympathy for. Even this guy's 4-year-old is a tool. The dialogue is frustrating, because you are subjected to a bunch of conversations that total douche bags are having. These hopeless, saps, losers are slogging through their sad lives, being bitter that others have it better, but they want to do a mediocre job in a mediocre life. They hate those that have succeeded. Perhaps that's a personal frustration of mine. That didn't help my opinion of this book anyway.

It's not that the writing was horrible, but it was scattered at least 3-4 times for a couple pages at a time. Those moments in the book reminded me of the Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test, which I didn't get through.

The Ask is a very quick read, but that's cause there's not a lot of substance.

Bottom line: pass.