Join co-hosts Anne Moore and Chris Stacey for an innovative, exciting, and passionate approach to world literature. Our current city is Los Angeles in the 1930s. Our second selection is John Fante’s Ask the Dust.

John Fante’s classic California novel details the adventures of his alter ego, Arturo Bandini, a young writer in Great Depression-era Los Angeles. Struggling to succeed, Bandini falls into an obsessive love affair with the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Yet just as fortune looms with the publication of his first novel, everything falls apart when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears—propelling Bandini to reject the writer’s life.

Club Member Registration: The book club is exclusively for club members. Here is a list of club members: CUCC Club Members.

If you are not a club member, join and we'll see you at the book club: Become a Club Member.

Non-Club Members Wait List: All registrants who are not club members are placed on a wait list. You are contacted if any seats are available after club member registration.

There are 6 Club Member seats left as of August 14, 2026. Club members can bring one guest.

There are 0 Non-Club Members on the Wait List.

Date: Thursday, January 7, 2027

Social Hour: 5:00pm

Book Club: 6:00PM Central

Location: Private room. Club on Michigan Avenue.

Reviews

"Either the work of John Fante is unknown to you or unforgettable. He was not the kind of writer to leave room in between.” - New York Times

"The strength of Fante’s novel is that it is not rhapsodic so much as realistic, portraying Bandini, as well as the city itself, in complicated ways." - Alta Journal

Photo Credit: Harper Collins, Promotional Materials, Public Domain