the ask

While in Boston I read Sam Lipsyte's new book, The Ask.

A witty paean to white-collar loserdom in the fund-raising racket, "The Ask" describes a crisis in the life of one Milo Burke, a deeply cynical academic development officer, earnest binger on doughnuts, avid consumer of Internet porn, and devoted father and husband. Detailing the meltdown of Milo's career and marriage, "The Ask" takes place in an exhausted and passive institutional workplace — the kind of futile office space we know...