The Ask

The Ask is a darkly comic stroke of brilliant writing from American author Sam Lipyste.

Milo Burke works in a New York arts college soliciting donations from rich parents. He asks the ask, they give the give. While his grotesque colleagues are sourcing new wings and departments, he's managing plasma screens and not much else. Until Purdy, an old acquaintance from art school gets in touch with the potential of a big give. But to get the give, Purdy's got some asks of his own for poor Milo. The book scatters about through Milo's rememberances of better times and his current situation, which worsens as the book progresses. An impressive cabal of colourful characters all stand in the way of his keeping his job: and that includes his genitalia-obsessed child and 'touched-out' wife.

The book is energetically paced and the sheer momentum of Lipyste’s writing allows it to veer wildly from present-day narrative to anecdotes to social deconstruction in a matter of paragraphs. Filled with killer dialogue and obsessive selfish people, The Ask keeps you laughing, guessing and cringing right until the last page. The book is hysterically, laugh-out-loud funny, brutally so. From asides to conversations to strange character ticks to eccentric elements of New York’s rich, this is enjoyable, funny, brilliant masterful stuff.