John Farris's The Ass's Taleis a Rabelaisian story of a dog's search for his identity. Told in the existential down-and-dirty vein of Ralph Ellison, Ishmael Reed and Chester Himes, this book (in manuscript form) circulated through New York City's Lower East Side for years. John is a longtime denizen of the neighborhood; he still lives above the Bullet Space Gallery at 292 East Third Street.