I stuck with Patrick deWitt's first novel, “Ablutions” (2009) to the end because I love his later novels like “French Exit” and “The Sisters Brothers,” but it is a disappointing and disgusting book. The author tells us more than we want to know about humanity at its worst.

The novel — deWitt calls it "notes for a novel" because it consists of short glimpses of characters and events rather than a straight narrative — tells of the regulars at a Hollywood bar. Most of these people have either hit bottom, are on their way down or still wrongly believe they are on the way up. They all drink too much and take too many drugs. This includes our unnamed narrator, who gets free drinks as part of his compensation for working there.

Their drinking, drug taking and sex acts in the back room are described in detail. The narrator's wife leaves him for another man. He begins stealing money from the bar. His life goes from bad to worse.

Yet the novel is a confession, of sorts. The title is a religious term referring to "washing one's body or part of it," a cleansing. And that is sort of what the reader wants to do after reading it. ( )

Good read, but I found it pretty depressing. I probably will never read this again. ( )

The writing is gorgeous, so clear and descriptive. You can almost smell/taste/touch everything in this book. You wouldn't want to mind you, because almost everything in this story is truly nasty and an example of all the most base things humans are capable of doing to each other and to themselves. Spiraling out of control really. ( )

Love this author. ( )

I'm not really sure why this is called "Notes for a Novel" (at least in some versions). These fairly brief ramblings of an alcoholic mind are far different from "The Sisters Brothers", the first of DeWitt's books I read (or actually listened to), but they still display the author's talent for memorable images and situations. All the drinking and self-destruction gets a bit numbing near the end, but the novel picks up for a pretty satisfying ending, and I definitely recommend it to anyone with an interest in drinking, lowlifes, or Southern California. ( )