Ask Me Again
A novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE SHORTLIST • From the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize finalist, whose short stories received instant acclaim (“Sparingly told, evoked with lacerating intimacy . . . Extraordinary”—Esquire), a debut novel about a young woman’s coming of age, and the singular friendship that challenges her values, her beliefs, and the course of her life
At sixteen, Eva meets Jamie by chance. She lives in middle-class south Brooklyn; he comes from the super rich of upper Manhattan. She’s observant, cautious, often insecure; he’s curious, bold, full of mysteries. These two questers are drawn together in a strange and profound friendship, tested by forces larger than themselves. As Eva follows a path of conventional achievement—a prestigious degree, a formative romance, the start of an ambitious career—Jamie seeks out more radical experiments in finding himself: renouncing his family, joining a political movement, and eventually even talking to God.
Carried forcefully along by Clare Sestanovich’s exquisite prose, these two characters are pulled into separate spheres but circle the same questions: how to define their values and find their purpose, how to create a sense of self while discovering what they owe to society and to the cause of justice. These reckonings propel a surprising story of intimacy across time, exploring the alchemy of identity, the mystery of destiny, and the difficult journey of finding faith—in yourself, and in the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sestanovich's leisurely debut novel (after the collection Objects of Desire) traces the divergent paths of two friends from different socioeconomic strata. After college, middle-class Brooklynite Eva moves to Washington, D.C., where she hopes her "boring internship at an exciting newspaper" will lead to a real job. Though she's eventually hired as a researcher, her tasks remain rote and unsatisfying. In D.C., she reconnects and begins sleeping with her ambitious college boyfriend, Eli, but is similarly bored by details of his work for a U.S. senator. Eva's story plays out in counterpoint to that of her wealthy Upper East Side friend Jamie, who embraces the Occupy movement during college, refuses to accept money from his family, and joins a cult-like church in Brooklyn. By the end of the novel, Jamie's well-meaning desire for community, which drives him to purchase an abandoned warehouse where he illegally houses artists, leads to disaster. While readers hungry for plot and resolution may be left unsatisfied, Sestanovich captivates with her distinctive characterizations—including of Eva's parents, who offer Jamie financial support and show more interest in him than their daughter—and insights into the reverberating consequences of a gap between one's intentions and one's actions. The result is an intelligent exploration of lives in the making.
