Sam Lipsyte - The Ask

Guardian“Hysterically funny...” The Ask is full of amazing swerves in diction, sudden ascents and plunging descents in register (in the space of a page, and often in a single sentence); it affords breathtaking views of the social landscape of "late capitalism". It's all here...

The Independent“Stunningly diverse language...” In its gravid, relentless wit, it finds an implausibly effervescent seriousness that suggests Lipsyte could be one of the novelists whose voice will define the next decade. It is already stealthily defining the last couple...

The New Yorker“A cynical, spot-on satire of America after the meltdown...” Lipsyte shakes his comic cocktail of sarcasm and bitter impotence to eloquent effect (briefcases on wheels are “luggage for people not going anywhere”). Milo is repulsive, hilarious, and devastatingly self-aware...

The Times“It is that rare thing - a comic novel... ” Lipsyte is finally having his day with a book that has all the shine, crunch, pith and writhing maggots of the Big Apple in which it is set. Overall the novel strikes a brilliant tragicomic balance not often seen in contemporary fiction...

Economist“A brutally witty novel told from the perspective of a pitiable misfit...” “The Ask” is darker and more humane than the author’s earlier work. Milo may be a disaster, but he is drawn with tenderness. Mr Lipsyte has written a surprisingly meaningful book about the freshly minted grown-ups of his own generation...

The New York Times“Well hewn, funny, sophisticated...” Sam Lipsyte’s third novel, The Ask, is a dark and jaded beast — the sort of book that, if it were an animal, would be a lumbering, hairy, crypto­zoological ape-man with a near-crippling case of elephantiasis...

Publishers Weekly“A rare articulation of empire in decline...” Lipsyte’s pitch-black comedy takes aim at marriage, work, parenting, abject failure (the author’s signature soapbox) and a host of subjects you haven’t figured out how to feel bad about yet...

The Scotsman“Not yet reviewed”

The Telegraph“Not yet reviewed”

Financial Times“Not yet reviewed”