"A" is for Ablutions

I'm taking a break from the "About"s to go back to a book I was waiting to be returned to the library. Ablutions is the first novel from new author, Patrick DeWitt.

The full title is Ablutions: Notes for a Novel. The name is confusing at first, but I was quickly put to understanding after the first “note.” This book is written in second person singular (you) and doesn’t exactly have chapters. Instead the reader becomes the main character as he is taken through a diary-like look from the eyes of a bartender who is taking notes about his experiences for a novel he will write someday. The author seems to like the phrase “platonically fall in love with” and I plan on working this into conversation sometime this week.

This book is far too depressing and just confirms the fact that I hate California and alcoholics. The fact that the author is forcefully including me in the story makes me uncomfortable, but I dealt with it.

This book is off the new fiction shelf, but already most of the pages are covered in smashed up fruit flies. weird