The ask
(Book)

Milo Burke, a development officer at a third-tier university, has gbsnot been developinggcs: after a run-in with a well-connected undergrad, he finds himself among the burgeoning class of the newly unemployed. Grasping after odd jobs to support his wife and child, Milo is offered one last chance by his former employer: he must reel in a potential donorb2sa major gbsaskgcb2swho, mysteriously, has requested Milogass involvement. But it turns out that the ask is Milogass sinister college classmate Purdy Stuart. And the gbsgivegcs wongast come cheap. Probing many themesb2s or, perhaps, anxietiesb2sincluding work, war, sex, class, child rearing, romantic comedies, Benjamin Franklin, cooking shows on death row, and the eroticization of chicken wire, The Ask is a burst of genius by a young American master who has already demonstrated that the truly provocative and important fictions are often the funniest ones. --from publisher's website