LoveReading Says
An interesting read as I didn’t quite settle and consequently feel this is a novel that leads to questions rather than answers. Eva and Jamie meet when they are 16, and over the next ten years remain a constant in each other's lives, even when they are not together. Author Clare Sesanovich writes with a piercing and rather beautiful pen. I love getting to know characters who aren’t necessarily likeable, it allows you full access to consider and step back when needed even though this can lead to frustrations. Eva remains at the forefront with Jamie at times sidelined, I found their relationship to be authentic and enjoyed exploring their at times strained friendship. The plot flits, dances, and meanders through time as Eva explores. While this is a coming of age novel, it also feels like Eva is coming to realisation of the reality of life and so I have included this as a Liz Pick of the Month. Unexpected and original, Ask Me Again is a fascinating exploration of relationships with others and yourself.
Liz Robinson
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Ask Me Again Synopsis
From Clare Sestanovich, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize nominee whose short stories received instant acclaim ('Sparingly told, evoked with lacerating intimacy . . . Extraordinary' - Esquire), Ask Me Again is a debut novel about a young woman's coming of age, in parallel with a renegade male friend who challenges 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, eager to seem normal; he's curious, bold, full of mysteries. She keeps a keen intelligence under wraps; his eccentric brilliance is all but impossible to repress.
While Eva welcomes Jamie into her family's embrace, he avoids going home; with little in common, they are drawn together in a deep friendship. As Eva goes off to an elite college and falls in and out of love, Jamie drops out of school and joins the Occupy Wall Street movement. Eva, so often trapped by self-doubt, is both awed and repelled by the strength of Jamie's convictions.
Carried forcefully along by Sestanovich's highly observant, butterfly-pinning prose, these two characters, pulled into separate spheres, 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. The geometry of their platonic love leads us on a surprising journey of intimacy across time - exposing the alchemy of connection, of the relationships that can define who we are and can even change us, and the possible futures we might not have imagined for ourselves.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781529053593 |
| Publication date: |
23rd January 2025 |
| Author: |
Clare Sestanovich |
| Publisher: |
Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
320 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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About Clare Sestanovich
Clare Sestanovich is the author of Objects of Desire, which was a finalist for the PEN Robert W. Bingham Prize. She was named a '5 Under 35' honoree by the National Book Foundation. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper's, The Drift, and Electric Literature. She lives in Brooklyn.
More About Clare Sestanovich
