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.