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 classic romance, the start of an ambitious career – Jamie seeks out more radical experiments in finding himself.
If Sestanovich’s thematic ambitions are broad — the meaning of life, the coherence of identity, the possibility of principles — her language is cuttingly precise ... While Sestanovich’s reach sometimes exceeds her grasp, it’s reaching that she’s more curious about anyway.
Each of these elements makes sense intellectually — the novel is insistently concerned with different ways of being "of use" to the world — but the proportions are off ... Sestanovich can be wonderfully observant about sexual dynamics, as in an exactingly described round of post-breakup sexting and a surprising election-night hookup; and, as in her stories, her protagonists’ palpable disappointment with the world is endearing, even if its source isn’t always clear. But on the scale of a novel, the author’s hesitancy becomes unsatisfying. There’s a failure to commit to plotlines and characters, a skittish abandonment of deeper engagement at key moments.
When a novel, like this one, is light on plot or narrative tension, the protagonist’s voice and character must carry the story. That’s what makes Ask Me Again so frustrating ... Sometimes the narrative voice’s simplicity opens the world in a wonderfully fresh way ... Often, however, that simplicity comes across as too juvenile and naïve for Eva’s age and urban upbringing ... If the Eva-Jamie relationship is supposed to be the fulcrum of this coming-of-age story, the reader needs to see a lot more of Jamie ... There are... two other Evas, the perceptive Eva and the infantile Eva. On balance, it’s worth reading Ask Me Again for the flashes of the first Eva.
