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.
- ISBN10 0151014981
- ISBN13 9780151014989
- Publish Date 28 February 2009 (first published 10 February 2009)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 2 July 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Houghton Mifflin
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 164
- Language English