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The Bar Is Low
“Ben DeVos is one of my favorite writers, and The Bar Is Low is the best book I’ve ever read about an amputee who waits tables at a pirate-themed restaurant. Using a simple yet oddly poetic style brimming with humor and compassion, DeVos allows his characters to succeed in spite of their personal traumas, their flaws, the grotesque banality of everyday living, and as a human being, The Bar Is Low is a beautiful and lasting reading experience.”
–Brian Alan Ellis, author of Sad Laughter and Something to Do with Self-Hate
"Benjamin DeVos is hilarious AF and pulsed into the vein of what it means to be alive. This book made me laugh until I cried and cry until I laughed. He's a great talent, a gift."
–Troy James Weaver, author of Temporal
"Benjamin DeVos is a great writer and also a sensei in the dojo of not giving a fuck. He says, 'I take a smoke break even though I don’t smoke.' That's what's up."
–Bud Smith, author of Work
–Brian Alan Ellis, author of Sad Laughter and Something to Do with Self-Hate
"Benjamin DeVos is hilarious AF and pulsed into the vein of what it means to be alive. This book made me laugh until I cried and cry until I laughed. He's a great talent, a gift."
–Troy James Weaver, author of Temporal
"Benjamin DeVos is a great writer and also a sensei in the dojo of not giving a fuck. He says, 'I take a smoke break even though I don’t smoke.' That's what's up."
–Bud Smith, author of Work
- GenresFiction
72 pages, Paperback
First published September 18, 2018
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107 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 21, 2025
Free to Kiss the Sky...
THE BAR IS LOW
by Benjamin DeVos
5 stars. These are the musings of a man who lost a leg to a garbage truck. He's the nameless narrator, but for this review, I'll call him MC...
At a meeting of the Limb-It-Less support group, an armless man sits beside the pizza being served...
He looks longingly at the pizza. He has no arms to reach for a piece and feed it to himself...
The man, Andy, also misses lifting his morning coffee to his lips and all the tattoos he had on his arms...
MC longs to feed Andy the pizza. There is no judgment at Limb-It-Less...
The group leader, who lost a hand, drones on to the attendees about the many ways a limb might be lost...
Meanwhile...
MC daydreams about the man, having lost every limb, including his head, which has been preserved in a jar, and imagines the jar sitting on the podium leading the meeting...
This is just one of the many daydreams MC has as he passes along his insights and philosophy on his life as a disabled young man to the reader...
But he never loses hope...
He thinks about his future. Where he's going and what he'll do when he gets there...
There is no point in mincing words with destiny. The mind holds the key to setting the spirit free to kiss the sky...
In this story, the bar is already so low that you can't imagine it going anywhere else but up. It is humorous at times, and at other times, it is very thought-provoking. I had to do some digging to find this little novella, but it was well worth the effort.
THE BAR IS LOW
by Benjamin DeVos
5 stars. These are the musings of a man who lost a leg to a garbage truck. He's the nameless narrator, but for this review, I'll call him MC...
At a meeting of the Limb-It-Less support group, an armless man sits beside the pizza being served...
He looks longingly at the pizza. He has no arms to reach for a piece and feed it to himself...
The man, Andy, also misses lifting his morning coffee to his lips and all the tattoos he had on his arms...
MC longs to feed Andy the pizza. There is no judgment at Limb-It-Less...
The group leader, who lost a hand, drones on to the attendees about the many ways a limb might be lost...
Meanwhile...
MC daydreams about the man, having lost every limb, including his head, which has been preserved in a jar, and imagines the jar sitting on the podium leading the meeting...
This is just one of the many daydreams MC has as he passes along his insights and philosophy on his life as a disabled young man to the reader...
But he never loses hope...
He thinks about his future. Where he's going and what he'll do when he gets there...
There is no point in mincing words with destiny. The mind holds the key to setting the spirit free to kiss the sky...
In this story, the bar is already so low that you can't imagine it going anywhere else but up. It is humorous at times, and at other times, it is very thought-provoking. I had to do some digging to find this little novella, but it was well worth the effort.
October 25, 2018
The narrator of this story is as real as the air we inhale. He is part of us, the part that is orbiting the periphery of existence, obeying rules that we can't understand. Triumph comes not as a break from dependence, but as a BASE jump into the infinite possibilities we call life. This book is stunning in both its simplicity and in its grasp on complexity. I am going to read it again.
May 4, 2025
"I live like a turtle and that's how I like it."
I was NOT expecting this 🥺
This short novella is so much, packed into so few pages. It may feel like a simple slice of life but it really is so much more.
I loved the MC, with all his flaws, with his philosophy of life... He is so touching I cared for him.
Benjamin's words are extraordinary in their simplicity and yet impactful. This is a gem ❤️
I was NOT expecting this 🥺
This short novella is so much, packed into so few pages. It may feel like a simple slice of life but it really is so much more.
I loved the MC, with all his flaws, with his philosophy of life... He is so touching I cared for him.
Benjamin's words are extraordinary in their simplicity and yet impactful. This is a gem ❤️
January 21, 2019
Fuckin' A, did Ben just set the bar really high or what? If his other books are even remotely comparable to this one, he'll quickly snuggle up next to writers like Bud Smith, Sam Pink, Brian Alan Ellis... sexy ass gents who write books that I want to just stretch out naked in, pressing their words into my bare skin, absorbing them into my very veins.
Deceptively short, overflowing with awesomeness, The Bar is Low is the story of an amputee who takes his pegleg to work at a pirate-themed resturant. It's the humdrum life of a guy determined to make things easy for himself - living in a rented apartment with a roommate he despises, working a humilating job with a boss he can't stand, killing time at support group for people with missing limbs.
Not one word is wasted. Not one sentence is fluff. Ben has cut right down into the bone and marrow of everyday nuances. Shit, we all know this guy! The one who's got so-so hygeine, who's always cracking jokes and daydreaming about ridiculous shit, who never seems to sweat it while the rest of us dumbasses are breaking our backs to get ahead, to get the girl, to make ends meet...
Deceptively short, overflowing with awesomeness, The Bar is Low is the story of an amputee who takes his pegleg to work at a pirate-themed resturant. It's the humdrum life of a guy determined to make things easy for himself - living in a rented apartment with a roommate he despises, working a humilating job with a boss he can't stand, killing time at support group for people with missing limbs.
Not one word is wasted. Not one sentence is fluff. Ben has cut right down into the bone and marrow of everyday nuances. Shit, we all know this guy! The one who's got so-so hygeine, who's always cracking jokes and daydreaming about ridiculous shit, who never seems to sweat it while the rest of us dumbasses are breaking our backs to get ahead, to get the girl, to make ends meet...
October 20, 2018
what the fuck is up this book just what i'm always looking for and almost never find...
99 cents right now on kindle
get it and if u don't like it u can kill me if i don't kill u first ok i'm being a little dramatic but u get it
99 cents right now on kindle
get it and if u don't like it u can kill me if i don't kill u first ok i'm being a little dramatic but u get it
October 8, 2018
It is a nice, short read. If you’re into Anderson Prunty’s more nihilistic works, then you ought to enjoy this.
I personally find these kinds of stories enjoyable. A basic dude meandering through life, searching for meaning, learning to embrace the lack thereof. There’s something tragic and romantic about these stories.
I think we can expect some cool things from this author down the road.
I personally find these kinds of stories enjoyable. A basic dude meandering through life, searching for meaning, learning to embrace the lack thereof. There’s something tragic and romantic about these stories.
I think we can expect some cool things from this author down the road.
October 14, 2018
In The Bar is Low DeVos uniquely brings out the humor and irony in everyday situations. The protagonist is easily an all time favorite character. I wished this book was twice its length. Simply put, many scenes are beautifully human and touching. If you like your humor with undertones of nihilism this is for you. I look forward to everything I have yet to read from the author. Great stuff.
October 16, 2018
Ben writes the kind of books that give me faith that art can never die. He is a sensei in the dojo of not giving a fuck. His work is refreshing and inspiring. End review.
September 12, 2019
Best book ever about a waiter with one leg working in a pirate-themed resturant. Pretty great slice of existentialism too.
January 13, 2019
The Bar is Low will temporarily and dreamily suspend you in a world of crushed spiders, rat guts, dusty, hole-filled pirate uniforms, blood, urine, shit, piss, amputees, and friendly ass-punching bus drivers.
It's a bleak slice of the world that the main character and narrator exists in.
But from the grungey guts of this reality, humor, imagination, and optimism are born and shine through. The narrator conjures a t-rex to wreck his place of employment and release suffocating shits on his boss, he imagines launching into the cosmos to smash up stars with leg drops.
The imaginative prose in this book is like a flower blooming in the middle of a junk yard - the contrast is stark, and uniquely beautiful and hopeful.
The Bar is Low will have you laughing out loud despite yourself, and surprise you when you find a smile forming on your face where you expected to crinkle your nose.
It's a bleak slice of the world that the main character and narrator exists in.
But from the grungey guts of this reality, humor, imagination, and optimism are born and shine through. The narrator conjures a t-rex to wreck his place of employment and release suffocating shits on his boss, he imagines launching into the cosmos to smash up stars with leg drops.
The imaginative prose in this book is like a flower blooming in the middle of a junk yard - the contrast is stark, and uniquely beautiful and hopeful.
The Bar is Low will have you laughing out loud despite yourself, and surprise you when you find a smile forming on your face where you expected to crinkle your nose.
August 2, 2019
welcome to boner city.
September 24, 2022
A testament of how creativity can be suppressed by capital logic of labor. Producing the means for survival takes so much effort that it reduces individual potential to dust, the inner self suffocated. The Bar is Low functions on a dual dynamic, presenting the rich internal world of the protagonist superimposed to the crude reality he endures. His frustrating job dictates his life, his identity one of an employee and an amputee. The man is mostly defined by what is missing in his life, it's a meager existence, rarely joyful. The writing is pretty straightforward, a first person narrator describes his life and thoughts, most of the time the outcome is bleak, despite that, his inner life is painted in vivid colors, bursting with desire and humor. DeVos creates a complex character out of a simple structure, his prose is blunt yet poetic. Even though the text might feel aimless at times, that could be exactly the point, there's no rhyme or reason to real life.
March 25, 2021
Benjamin DeVos’ ‘The Bar is Low’ is the story of a one-legged waiter working at a pirate-themed restaurant. A short read yet still crammed full of tragically comic characters, offbeat observations and increasingly macabre and violent daydreams. It’s profound, surreal, deadpan, human, heartfelt, laugh-out-loud hilarious - but its DeVos’ pace that makes it; with prose so minimal and at times aphoristic it becomes its own poetry.
January 8, 2019
A hilariously morbid tale of humanity and existence that combines real-world situations with uncommon characters. Written in a disjunctive—almost poetic—narrative, it’s almost impossible to miss this silver lining.
May 8, 2020
I am hardly qualified to review anything
But since I cannot just give the star rating without having to complete this section...it is a quick short read but funny and characters very realistic and relatable. Read it, I am glad I did.
But since I cannot just give the star rating without having to complete this section...it is a quick short read but funny and characters very realistic and relatable. Read it, I am glad I did.
September 6, 2025
“I want his life, to have something worth stressing for”
August 12, 2019
This book offers a unique journey within the mind of a narrator who weaves observations about the everyday and the sublime (often in the same sentence), the dully physical and dreamily metaphysical, in ways that are consistently laugh-out-loud funny and often profound. I found myself moved, cringing, chuckling and always rooting for him. I haven’t read a first person perspective in a protagonist quite like this, the only thing I can compare it to in some ways is Kurt Vonnegut in wry tone, world-weary resilience and sharp comedic wit and insight. I’m ready for a longer novel by him
July 25, 2021
Darkly funny and darkly poignant, this may be short, but the stream-of-consciousness style helps hit on all the major points. While being hysterical.
March 11, 2022
*pensively* Aye aye, matey
May 5, 2019
Probably my favorite book that I've read so far this year. This style reminds me of a few writers but is also clearly his own. Looking forward to reading more DeVos.
September 26, 2022
What a wonderful, tragic, comedic, honest look at the life of an ordinary person who just wants to be. Okay, it's a bit of stretch, but DeVos reminds me of Albert Camus...well, if Camus had a great sense of humor.
I think the reason it has such a high rating is that it sustains all of the descriptors above throughout the entire story while making you identify strongly with our thirty something amputee narrator who works in a sleazy pirate-themed restaurant. DeVos has a talent not often seen in literature where a writer takes a flat main character and puts him through absurd situations we are all way too familiar and makes us feel for him. You start to well-up with sympathy for the "shit" he puts up with that he wants no part of and really would be much happier without.
This turns into cheering for him to "take a stand" and well, then there's the ending. Well worth your time to read it once or twice.
P.S. Best roommate character ever.
I think the reason it has such a high rating is that it sustains all of the descriptors above throughout the entire story while making you identify strongly with our thirty something amputee narrator who works in a sleazy pirate-themed restaurant. DeVos has a talent not often seen in literature where a writer takes a flat main character and puts him through absurd situations we are all way too familiar and makes us feel for him. You start to well-up with sympathy for the "shit" he puts up with that he wants no part of and really would be much happier without.
This turns into cheering for him to "take a stand" and well, then there's the ending. Well worth your time to read it once or twice.
P.S. Best roommate character ever.
April 14, 2022
I’ve started writing several stories similar to this (I assume most writers/readers who work in customer service have top) in the same deadpan voice, non-judgmental observations but have never managed to sustain it for more than a few pages, like DeVos does here. Enjoyed this a lot, particularly the character and the restaurant setting. And I admire its comfort in just existing as is, without attaching this character and setting to a plot or conventional ‘story’. For some reason the constant new chapters irked me but I’m not sure why. It’s really not important.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews