Ask The Dust

What is the significance of the title, Ask the Dust? How does it relate to the major themes of the novel?

Write about race, culture, and identity in Ask the Dust. What is the significance of Arturo’s Italian ancestry, Camilla’s Mexican ancestry, and Vera Rivken’s Jewish identity in the novel?

In what ways does Arturo believe creativity to be linked to romantic and sexual experience? How do his relationships with Vera and Camilla impact his development as a writer?

Write about the role of Arturo’s Catholic faith in the novel. How do his struggles with religious guilt interact with his desire to become a writer and gain sexual experience?

What is the significance of the final scene, in which Arturo inscribes a copy of his novel to Camilla and then throws it into the desert? 

What is the significance of the final scene, in which Arturo inscribes a copy of his novel to Camilla and then throws it into the desert? 

1. Write about the use of point of view in Ask the Dust. Although told from the first-person perspective of Arturo, the narrator often uses the third-person while imagining himself as a famous writer or the second-person while imagining himself as addressing Camillaor the city of Los Angeles. How do these narrative choices shape the experience of reading the novel?

Write about the character of Sammy in Ask the Dust. What does he represent in the novel, and what attracts Camilla to him?