Ask the Dust

Set in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, John Fante's novel follows Arturo Bandini, a young Italian-American from Colorado trying to make it as a writer while lodging in a residential hotel in rundown Bunker Hill. He lives on oranges, and his one story in print, The Little Dog Laughed, wins over almost no one in his boarding house. Broke, he drifts into the Columbia Buffet and meets Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress, and the two fall into a strained love-hate relationship, while he wrestles with Catholic guilt. Bandini, who recurs in other Fante novels, is the author's alter ego. It reached its widest readership after Charles Bukowski championed a reissue, and Robert Towne adapted it as a film.

Ryan Holiday included it in his best book recommendations of 2011.