Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook164 pages3 hours
Ablutions: Notes for a Novel
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
From the author of Booker Prize finalist The Sisters Brothers: “Viciously hilarious . . . deWitt’s portrayal of the drinking life is staunchly unromantic.” —Time Out New York
In a famous, but declining, Hollywood bar works a barman, morbidly amused by the decadence of his surroundings. He quietly observes as the patrons fall into their nightly oblivion, taking notes for his novel. In the hopes of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with a cast of variously pathological regulars.
But as his tenure at the bar continues, he begins to serve himself more often than his customers, and the time he spends outside the bar becomes more and more painful. He loses his wife, his way, himself. Trapped by habits and loneliness, the barman realizes he will not survive if he doesn’t break free. And so he hatches a terrible, necessary plan of escape and redemption.
“Sharp and bitter and funny” (Los Angeles Times), Ablutions steps behind the bar and goes below rock bottom for a brilliant new twist on the classic tale of addiction and its consequences “so punctuated with tiny, heartbreaking moments of grace—it becomes impossible to put the book down” (Portland Mercury).
“Dark and provocative . . . ‘Ablutions’ has achieved something remarkable.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Melancholic, sentimental, and very funny.” —Harper’s Bazaar (UK)
“As heartbreaking as it is hilarious . . . an utterly compelling novel.” —The Believer
In a famous, but declining, Hollywood bar works a barman, morbidly amused by the decadence of his surroundings. He quietly observes as the patrons fall into their nightly oblivion, taking notes for his novel. In the hopes of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with a cast of variously pathological regulars.
But as his tenure at the bar continues, he begins to serve himself more often than his customers, and the time he spends outside the bar becomes more and more painful. He loses his wife, his way, himself. Trapped by habits and loneliness, the barman realizes he will not survive if he doesn’t break free. And so he hatches a terrible, necessary plan of escape and redemption.
“Sharp and bitter and funny” (Los Angeles Times), Ablutions steps behind the bar and goes below rock bottom for a brilliant new twist on the classic tale of addiction and its consequences “so punctuated with tiny, heartbreaking moments of grace—it becomes impossible to put the book down” (Portland Mercury).
“Dark and provocative . . . ‘Ablutions’ has achieved something remarkable.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Melancholic, sentimental, and very funny.” —Harper’s Bazaar (UK)
“As heartbreaking as it is hilarious . . . an utterly compelling novel.” —The Believer
Unavailable
Author
Patrick deWitt
Patrick deWitt is the author of the novels French Exit (a national bestseller), The Sisters Brothers (a New York Times bestseller short-listed for the Booker Prize), and the critically acclaimed Undermajordomo Minor and Ablutions. Born in British Columbia, he now resides in Portland, Oregon.
Read more from Patrick De Witt
The Sisters Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5French Exit: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ablutions: Notes for a Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Ablutions
Related ebooks
Quicksand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anthologist: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Apathy and Other Small Victories: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fun Parts: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Downtown Owl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Financial Lives of the Poets: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonder Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Was Lost: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus' Son: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hill William Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Homesickness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThreshold Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Venus Drive: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Telegraph Avenue: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Mars Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crazy Sorrow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLush Life: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sound of My Voice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Naked Singularity: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hot Pink Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Trout Fishing in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Feral Detective: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Fuck Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNine Inches: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ask: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Zeroville: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silence: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Literary Fiction For You
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Ablutions
Rating: 4.333333333333333 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
3 ratings0 reviews