Ablutions [suggested by Phil Howarth]
A nameless barman tends a decaying bar in Hollywood and takes notes for a book about his clientele. Initially, he is morbidly amused by watching the regulars roll in and fall into their nightly oblivion, pitying them and their loneliness. In hopes of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with them. He also knocks back pills indiscriminately and treats himself to gallons of Jameson’s. But as his tenure at the bar continues, he begins to lose himself, trapped by addiction and indecision. When his wife leaves him, he embarks on a series of squalidly random sexual encounters and a downward spiral of self-damage and irrational violence. To cleanse himself and save his soul, he attempts to escape … [Product description from Amazon]
Author’s Wikipedia page.
Shortlisted for this month
Back to the normal selection scheme this month, and as well as giving us a second opportunity to make the right decision regarding Ablutions (having tried last month), Phil’s other choices were:
Ludmila’s Broken English
DBC Pierre’s second novel charts the unlikely meeting between East and West that follows Ludmila Derev’s appearance on a Russian brides website. Determined to save her family from starvation in the face of marauding Gnez troops, Ludmila’s journey into the world and womanhood is an odyssey of sour wit, even sourer vodka, and a Soviet tractor probably running on goat’s piss.
Thousands of miles to the West, the Heath twins are separated after 33 years conjoined at the abdomen. Released for the first time from an institution rumoured to have been founded for an illegitimate child of Charles II, they are suddenly plunged into a round-the-clock world churning with opportunity, rowdy with the chatter of freedom, democracy, self-empowerment and sex. [product description from Amazon]
The book has a Wikipedia page.
Author’s Wikipedia page.
Author’s website.
The Many
On the surface, his move to the isolated village on the coast makes perfect sense. But the experience is an increasingly unsettling one for Timothy Bucchanan. A dead man no one will discuss. Wasted fish hauled from a contaminated sea. The dream of faceless men. Questions that lead to further questions. What truth are the villagers withholding? What fuels their interest and animosity towards him? And what pushes Timothy to dig deeper? [Product description from Amazon]
Author’s website. One of the most awful author websites I’ve ever encountered. A scrolling gallery that shows a single picture, a biog section that repeats itself, and the whole thing is so unresponsive it appears to be running on an old PC tucked away under his desk in a Cornish village at the end of a dial-up link.