The problem with contemporary fiction is there is JUST SO MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM! I mean, talk about a forest of stories just waiting for you in your local bookstore or library. I get overwhelmed when I see so many titles waiting for my selection and often seek out the tried and true.
Now this guy, he's probably one of the most current authors I ever read. I picked up a free copy of Sisters Brothers from the local Free Book Tree (if you don't have one of these, you need one). It was near mint condition and the winner of the Governor General's Literary Award. Anyways, that book, The Sisters Brothers was AMAZING and although the movie wasn't, I still went out of my way to find something else written by DeWitt and found this little gem about a bartender, written while DeWitt was apparently a bartender.
Ablutions is unique in that it tells a tale entirely in the second person. That is to say, he uses the word 'you' throughout. He commands 'you' to discuss 'your' wife and 'your' life as an alcoholic bartender on the fringes of Hollywood. He, through the second person, makes you experience a totally different life, full of bad choices, quick sexual flings, criminal activity and day-to-day interactions with coke addicts, machete-wielding drunks and androgynous con artists.
It's definitely not for everyone but I can see a few people I know liking it, particularly Jay F, who if he is reading this should know that just because the writer is tall and lanky and has a chin like Superman, doesn't mean I thought of him in the title role.
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