- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Granta Books (7 Jan 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1847081371
- ISBN-13: 978-1847081377
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 290,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Ablutions
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Product Description
Review
'An intense and carefully sustained piece of writing about the blurry edges of existence, shot though with remarkable lucidity' - Guardian --Review
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
`DeWitt conjures up moments of both painful humour and tender beauty'- Financial Times
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
this debut novel by patrick dewitt (caps lock not working on my kindle, so apologies for lower case throughout) is an altogether different proposition than the excellent `the sisters brothers.` it deals with addiciton and the desperate lies we tell ourselves to justify our behaviour. there are no chapters and really no plot, as such. however, this is still a compelling read. the author is an extremely skilled writer and his prose is inspirational. novels don't have to brim with action and suspense to work. reminds me a little of raymond chandler in mood and the atmosphere is dark and foreboding. the premise being one of degrees of discomfort and despair, leading to logical conclusions for those concerned. this is a novel for people who love to read excellently constructed prose. the story is not the story of this book- the writing is.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a strange book chronicling the life of a bartender outside Hollywood, working in a bar full of down-and-outs whose lives are going nowhere. It is a fascinating study of addiction and the quiet desperation of people who are stuck in a bottomless rut. Although it is occasionally revolting, it is also often extremely funny and contains some excellent descriptions and put-downs. I disagree with one of the other reviews which claims it has no narrative- the reader cannot have been paying attention, the book begins showing the life of the bartender and follows a slow realisation that he cannot continue to live his life like this. I found parts of it surprisingly moving and will definitely be re-reading.
Also, read THE SISTERS BROTHERS, which is the author's second novel. It is even better than ABLUTIONS.
Also, read THE SISTERS BROTHERS, which is the author's second novel. It is even better than ABLUTIONS.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are moments in this book that grab you; the fine detail of the mundane misery and depths of addiction. However, the major problems with this book are those of pace, trajectory and narrative.
Put simply, it is phenomenally one-paced; there is never a sense of urgency or reflection. Everything simply drifts on at much the same speed.
There is no trajectory to the storyline or characters - while this may be partly deliberate, it is also an error. Characters pop up and disappear with alarming regularity; none of them mean anything to either the reader or other characters; none of them are going anywhere or have been anywhere (in any sense); they are simply there, and then gone. The whole book is aimless. In addition, all the characters are defined by a narrow range of traits, and so start to meld into each other.
Narrative? Doesn't really have one. It has about 120 individual set-pieces or vignettes. Each one is fine in itself; but it becomes a real drag to keep reading tiny unconnected sets of observations that never gel.
Overall, this strikes the reader as something written by someone who has experienced a number of things, but had no idea how to communicate them coherently. Instead, it reads like dozens of short creative writing exercises about the same subject, which just happen to be published under the same cover. As such, there is no real reason for the reader to care, or to keep reading. And it is this, that makes the book less absorbing as it ought to be.
Put simply, it is phenomenally one-paced; there is never a sense of urgency or reflection. Everything simply drifts on at much the same speed.
There is no trajectory to the storyline or characters - while this may be partly deliberate, it is also an error. Characters pop up and disappear with alarming regularity; none of them mean anything to either the reader or other characters; none of them are going anywhere or have been anywhere (in any sense); they are simply there, and then gone. The whole book is aimless. In addition, all the characters are defined by a narrow range of traits, and so start to meld into each other.
Narrative? Doesn't really have one. It has about 120 individual set-pieces or vignettes. Each one is fine in itself; but it becomes a real drag to keep reading tiny unconnected sets of observations that never gel.
Overall, this strikes the reader as something written by someone who has experienced a number of things, but had no idea how to communicate them coherently. Instead, it reads like dozens of short creative writing exercises about the same subject, which just happen to be published under the same cover. As such, there is no real reason for the reader to care, or to keep reading. And it is this, that makes the book less absorbing as it ought to be.
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