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BOOKS
Ablutions takes place in a sleazy Hollywood bar. The protagonist is the barback giving free shots to the regulars who are mired in self-hatred and caught in the unyielding grip of an alcoholic fog. He both pities and admires these sensational liars as he, himself, struggles with a daily addiction to beer, whiskey and drugs.
Patrick deWitt's unique approach creates impact beyond a typical addiction story– Ablutions is written as if the nameless barback is taking notes for a book.
Many of the paragraphs begin like this:
"Discuss Junior, the black crack addict whose whole world is the sidewalk in front of the bar. He claims to have been a promising college football player with an eye on the NFL."
deWitt uses the uncommon "you" second person point of view for the barman observing himself and those around him. That gives ample room for irony, cynicism and brutal truth when he comments on, among others, Sam the cocaine dealer, Merlin the chain-smoking medium, and Monty and Madge the drifters.
Observing a former child actor, our barman concludes, "...you will never look him directly in the eye for fear that you may come to know him, or that you will see for a moment his inmost being, which you are certain is a staggering, desolate, evil work of nature."
Mini dramas involving the patrons and employees unfold in chunked up paragraphs, but the larger continuous story focuses on our angry, messed-up barback who, like his customers, daily drinks himself sick and cannot help himself. His wife leaves him. His health deteriorates.
And when he takes a trip to the Grand Canyon in an effort to clean himself up, he fails. He doesn't begin to have even a whisper of success until, in the end, he steals money from the bar to finance a new life. The thievery gives him a goal and a sense of significance.
Living in a drunken stupor may not seem like palatable reading matter, but deWitt's creative style is – well – addictive – because he brings to life pathetic derelicts with energetic, colorful honesty.
His characters become lively albeit disturbing reality, and I found myself on the one hand disgusted and on the other compassionately fascinated.
"Ablutions: Notes for a Novel" by Patrick deWitt is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I'm Kassie Rose.
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