Ablutions

A classic tale of addiction and its consequences as well as a brilliant, often comic twist on the novel, set in, at, and behind the bar

In a famous but declining Hollywood bar works a bartender. Morbidly amused by the decadent decay of his surroundings, he watches the patrons fall into their nightly oblivion, making notes for his novel. In the hope of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with the 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 moments he lives outside the bar become more and more painful: he loses his wife, his way, himself. Trapped by his habits and his loneliness, he realizes he will not survive if he doesn't break free of his life and the bar. And so he hatches a terrible, necessary plan of escape and his only chance at redemption. Ablutions brings readers behind the bar, below rock bottom, and beyond the everyday take on storytelling.