Ablutions | Granta

  • Published: 05/01/2012
  • ISBN: 9781847086341
  • 129x20mm
  • 176 pages

Ablutions

Patrick deWitt

A nameless barman tends a decaying bar in Hollywood and takes notes for a book about his clientele. Initially, he is morbidly amused by watching the regulars roll in and fall into their nightly oblivion, pitying them and their loneliness. In hopes of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with them. He also knocks back pills indiscriminately and treats himself to gallons of Jameson’s. But as his tenure at the bar continues, he begins to lose himself, trapped by addiction and indecision. When his wife leaves him, he embarks on a series of squalidly random sexual encounters and a downward spiral of self-damage and irrational violence. To cleanse himself and save his soul, he attempts to escape …

Brilliant

The Times

An instant classic

Dazed and Confused

A brief, intense and carefully sustained piece of writing about the blurry edges of existence

Guardian

The Author

Patrick Dewitt’s writing has appeared in several US magazines and anthologies. His first novel, Ablutions, was published by Granta Books in 2009. He had previously published a short book of random writings and bad advice, Help Yourself Help Yourself. His second novel, The Sisters Brothers won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Govenor General Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

More about the author →

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Patrick deWitt and Neel Mukherjee in Conversation

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Neel Mukherjee and Patrick deWitt discuss their books Undermajordomo Minor and The Lives of Others, subconscious influence, the power of the exclamation mark and love.

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Lucy the Liar

Patrick deWitt

‘Tell me it’s a lie, now. Will you say that it is?’

In Conversation | Granta 132

Patrick deWitt | Interview

Patrick deWitt & Ted Hodgkinson

‘The question of whether or not I’m addressing America in my writing only comes up with people outside of America.’