Ablutions: Notes for a Novel

“I will try to be happy, you think, and your heart and chest feel a plummeting, as in the case of the hurtling rollercoaster, and your heart wants to cry and sob, but you, not wanting to cry, hit yourself hard in the center of your chest and it hurts so much but you drive on, your face dry and remaining dry, though it had been a close call, after all.”I picked up Ablutions: Notes for a Novel based largely off of my love for Patrick DeWitt’s second novel, The Sisters Brothers, an offbeat Western written with exquisite craft, a wry sense of humor, and a beautifully realized tone that recalled the great True Grit by Charles Portis. Ablutions is DeWitt’s first novel, and it shows; it lacks the narrative thrust that kept The Sisters Brothers moving, feeling more like a series of character sketches and moments than it ever does a true novel. What it has, though, is DeWitt’s superb writing, keeping you reading for the way he crafts a phrase and considers the emotional heft and impact of every word.In some ways, in fact, the episodic nature of the book only helps the writing to soar all the more. Narrated by a nameless bartender in a seedy bar on the outskirts of Hollywood, Ablutions is a cavalcade of broken souls – alcoholics, junkies, has-beens, never-was’es – and that might include our narrator as well. The book takes the form of fragmentary observations and anecdotes, often introduced with the reminder “Discuss”. But what that fragmentary nature robs of narrative pleasure, it adds in the ability to find the profound moments of everyday life, such as this knockout observation with one patron:“He drinks double vodka tonics from the well and becomes animated when describing a stunt or special effect from the latest Hollywood blockbuster. When he insists you see these movies you tell him you do not like the genre and he asks what other kinds there are and you say there are the slow ones and foreign ones and your personal favorites, the sad ones, and he blinks and says that there are two types of people: Those who want to cry, and those who are crying already and want to stop.”And even when not finding beautifully realized moments, DeWitt’s prose has a way of getting to emotional truths in a haunting way, from the moment of crushing pain I opened this review with to this aftermath of a misbegotten night together between two lost souls:“Now she is crying and you are shivering and it is time to go home and if you had a watch you would snap your wrist to look meaningfully at it but she dabs at her face and says she wants you to come upstairs and share a special-occasion bottle of very old and expensive wine and as there is no way not to do this you follow her through the dusty lobby and into the lurching, diamond-gated elevator and into her cluttered apartment to scrutinize her furnishings and unread or improperly read paperbacks, and you wonder if there is anything more depressing than the habitats of young people, young and rudderless women in particular.”Yes, DeWitt’s prose is beautiful, and more than equal to the offbeat, haunting narration of The Sisters Brothers. But for all of that, Ablutions often feels more like an exercise than a true novel, and a sometimes tedious exercise at that. It’s a portrait of addicts and broken souls, and that’s a story a lot of authors have done, and DeWitt doesn’t bring much new to the table apart from his writing. How much you enjoy Ablutions will, then, entirely hinge on your ability to savor DeWitt’s writing and the way he uses his prose to craft emotions out of the unlikeliest situations. It’s a book for those who love language, in other words, and others may be less likely to appreciate it. If you’re in that camp, I can’t recommend highly enough The Sisters Brothers, which is everything I like about Ablutions and more. But for those who enjoy writing as a way to create sketches that add up to something more, there’s something beautiful about Ablutions that I liked far more than the sum of its parts.

Having loved Patrick Dewitt's French Exit, (thanks, Viia) I'm continuing with his first novel, Ablutions: Notes For a Novel.Granted, there's been an enormous body of barfly work over the years, and this book joins an illustrious litany of self-destruction: John O'Brien's Leaving Las Vegas, Malcolm Lowry"s Under The Volcano, Charles Bukowski's Barfly, and my favorite, William T. Vollmann's latest, The Lucky Star.As with all the others, the cast of characters is fascinating, all the more so In Vino Veritas, where no tongue is restrained, no filters on bad behaviour, no depth of depravity too dark & desperate. What makes Ablutions unique is DeWitt's singular method: hearkening back to the subtitle, we are often presented by our barkeep narrator with generalities, as if we are responsible for filling in the 'notes for a novel'. Even more compelling and disturbing is the constant address in the Second Person, as if we are complicit, as if events are not described to us; we are enjoined as accessories in an unescapable fashion:"Discuss Sam, the black cocaine dealer. He dislikes you now. he has his children with him and they do not like you and will not accept your offer of candy or maraschino cherries. Discuss Ignacio, who no longer tells you his impossible-odds penis-adventure stories. Discuss Raymond, who will no longer speak to you and whose rancid coffee breath you have not smelled in several weeks. You have been pushed from their society and you are confused to find yourself hurt in the same way you were hurt in the schoolyard those many years back when the boys took your new ball away and you were forced to play with stones in the dirt and sand."These are the narrator's experiences, but they are meant intrinsically to be ours.For all the conversation within Ablutions, there are very few quotation marks:"You apologize for rambling but she is smiling more nad more now, and she admits she will be waiting for you at six, and she points to the stool she will be sitting on, and you in your happiness reach out to to touch her hand and she takes up yours and her fingers are so soft and warm and your hearts are beating very fast when the barback, a quick, modestly pompadoured Mexican teenager, rushes up and whispers something in her ear and her spine grows stiff and all joy leaves her face and she drops your hand and walks to the far end of the bar to serve the impatient, thirsty cowboys."I've already finished DeWitt's second novel, the pulp Western, The Sisters Brothers. It's quite impressive to see a writer create a whole new format, a whole new language for each of his efforts.

Told in second person, an enthralling read with a disjointed account of a self-denial alcoholic and druggie whose life is a mess. Very different from Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’, this guy is a loner, there is no Sal Paradis or friends, yet I found the narrative as rich, and in places just as poetical and tragic as well as bleak with unexpected comedy.

A dark and claustrophobic tale of an alcoholic bartender trying to make sense of his clientele and his fractured life. There's some black humour but not a great deal, mostly the workings and rationale of the mind of a junkie stuck in a rut. Dewitt tells this tale very well from the point of view of the bartender and his pen portraits of the fascinating people he serves are hypnotically descriptive; There are no heroes here - it's none more black..

This is a dark distressing tale. Sometimes it has a touch of humour and it made me laugh, but mostly it is a disturbing read where I felt I was on the outside watching the main character self distruct. It is about a group of rather disgusting individuals who only lived to drink to excess. The cover has a very good illustration of what the book is trying to say. It is very well written in a style which takes a while to get into. I have read de Witt's "Sisters Brothers" which was brilliant. Glad I did not read this one first as I might not have read any more. You feel like washing your hands after reading!

The title of this review is obviously very sarcastic, for that I apologise.Despite it's very dark and often depressing subject matter this book was excellent and I read it in just a few days!It simultaneously has you routing for and despising the main character, to a point where your confusion about your feelings makes it easier to relate to his drunken haze.If you are looking for a book to read on holiday that will make you smile, DONT buy this book! However if you want to step into the shoes of an alcoholic sociopath for a few days and come out untouched except for a severe case of melancholy......I would highly recommend it.

At first I thought this was going to be a series of very accomplished, but unconnected, character sketches. It isn't. It's a brilliantly written tale of a drop-out bar tender - his descent into chaos - and the creatures he encounters. Better than The Sisters Brothers. Truly excellent writing. A pleasure to read.