If Celine were alive today,
he still would not be someone you would want to spend too much time with, but
if he had a slight sense of humor to go along with his pessimistic vision than
he would probably write something like Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask, a novel that
makes up for a lack of originality with maybe the funniest writing you are
likely to come across in the modern literature. Lipsyte, or, I hope, Lipsyte’s
characters share a very strange view of the world, one that might have a lot in
common with Schopenhauer, where life really has no meaning, but we still must
go on (a truncated, bastardized version of his philosophy, for sure, but he was
the first guy I thought of when reading this). This is a very bleak view of the
world, one that offers no comfort or way out, and I shudder to think of people
actually thinking this way, but at least it goes about it in a humorous way.
The loose plot of the novel deals with Milo Burke, who after getting fired from
his job as a developmental officer at a crappy university, is called back with
an opportunity to regain his job if he can convince an old friend who became
wealthy after college to donate a large sum of money to the school. From there,
it is kind of a mish-mash of characters who have no real place in the novel than
to provide funny quips and turns of phrases, which, although are quite funny,
really drag the novel down. Every character has a cardboard personality so they
can look stupid in the mind of Milo, and ultimately the reader. But it is quite
funny, and it will make this novel better for a majority of its readers.
Rating: 4/5
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