Ablutions: Notes for a Novel
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
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
Patrick deWitt
Patrick deWitt is the author of The Sisters Brothers, which won the Governor General's Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Walter Scott Prize. He also is the author of Ablutions, which was a New York Times Editor's Choice, and Undermajordomo Minor. The Sisters Brothers is being adapted for film by Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet), to star Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed and John C. Reilly, for release in 2018. French Exit, his third book, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Born in British Columbia, Canada, deWitt 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 stars4/5Downtown Owl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus' Son: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Venus Drive: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hill William Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Fun Parts: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Petroleum Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nicotine: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Threshold Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Watch: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homesickness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mysteries of Pittsburgh Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sugar Street Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dice Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Music Through the Floor: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island!!! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Crazy Sorrow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWonder Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sound of My Voice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Visible Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Certain American States: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iq84 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Welfare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Naked Singularity: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Here Are the Young Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Train Dreams: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resuscitation of a Hanged Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How It Always Is: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5If We Were Villains: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Swiss: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salvage the Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Ablutions
3 ratings0 reviews