A drug-addled bartender serves up strong booze to his loathsome customers in a filthy bar in Hollywood. In less skilled hands, this story could have turned out like a tired retread of Bukowski; instead, it's a head-spinning surreal portrait of a descent into hell. Turns out they serve cocktails there.
-- Recommended by Suzanne, City Lights Books
Patrick deWitt's stunning debut novel has been compared to the work of Charles Bukowski, Denis Johnson, and Hunter S. Thompson. It is funny and horrifying and beautiful and honest. It is a "marvel" (L.A.Weekly), the kind of book whose "dirty realism" makes Gary Shteyngart “want to roll in the mud with” the author. Ablutions is destined to be a backlist favorite for many years.
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