I finished The Tender Bar, by J.R. Moehringer, last week. I’m at least the third BGB’er to read it, and was contemplating not even posting on it until our blogmaster commented that not posting would be “lame”. So here goes.
Let me start by saying that I liked this book. I did. But it wasn’t what I thought it would be, and that led to some waffling in my mind about what I thought of it. Basically, I thought it was going to be about young J.R. and how he spent time at a particular bar, which became special to him in some way. And it was. But then it went on into the rest of J.R.’s life, usually finding a way to tie happenings in his life back to that bar, sometimes tenuously.
Don’t get me wrong — many of the stories from his life are interesting, some are hysterically funny (losing his virginity on top of a desert mountain outside Phoenix was a hoot, but you couldn’t possiby understand what made it funny unless you read his account), and some were heartbreaking. Most were moving in some way. And worth reading. But I had my mind set on a particular path, based on the title of the book and the photo on the cover, and once it veered off that path, I was sort of confused. My fault, not the book’s. But so it was.
And I’d be lying if I the book didn’t make me think about every bar I’ve ever frequented, just to see if there were any parallels. And there were a few.
My gripe with the book (and I’m bracing for the slings and arrows from the readers who gushed over it) was the Epilogue. It was a tacked-on piece about the post-9/11 situation in Manhasset, where J.R. grew up. I don’t disagree with any of his insights from the Epilogue, but I just didn’t get the pathway there. The book ended sometime in the early 1990’s, with J.R. getting off a plane in Colorado to hang out with his pal Jimbo, and then you turn the page and you’re at 9/11. I just didn’t follow.
Now, to brighten up this post, I came across a story from Esquire magazine by Mr. Moehringer called “The Endorsement: Not Drinking”. Maybe our fine blogmaster can find a way to put a link here if he searches the archives of Esquire.com. Good story, talking about how bars can be a lot of fun for non-drinkers.
Update: Here’s the Esquire article by Moehringer and here’s a link to DJ Cayenne’s post on the same book[ed.]
August 9th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Shaft, you may need to rethink your policy about not reading posts about books that you intend to read. I agree, the hype about the book is that the “boy is raised by the bar” - which is just not true. Also, the epilogue is a tad abrupt. Mrs. Cayenne and Moehringer got into it at the reading about just that. I asked him about it, and he absolutely intended for the book to end in Colorado. Sept. 11 caused him to return to his home town and see all of those characters again, and he felt compelled to write the epilogue to talk about the impact on his town and the people that we meet in the book. What got Mrs. Cayenne upset is that he didn’t explain why he had to leave them all behind when he left for Colorado. I suspect that’s what he had to do to get away from the sauce, but I could be wrong. Reread my post to see what my inscription from the author says. Anyway, that said, I loved the book. Heck, it’s one of my all time favorite books. I’m glad that you got around to posting on this, even though you didn’t totally agree with me. To my way of thinking, it’s more interesting when we have different takes on things anyway.
August 10th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Thanks for the comment, Mr. DJ. That didn’t hurt so bad after all. I’ll go reread your post. And before I do so, I’ll come right out and say that I’ll bet my view of the book and everything in it would probably be different if I had gone to the reading with you and the wife. Don’t let me miss another one of those.
August 10th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Hello Shaft. I’m new to Baby Got Books–great blog. I am tickled to see you writing about The Tender Bar as I grew up in Mahnhasset and was a bus boy at Publicans.
I agree with you on the often tenuous links between events in the authors life and the bar. I would have liked a few more real-time scenes of the social dynamic going on there. My guess is that he was too drunk to remember most of it.
As a Manhasset-ite I really enjoyed the descriptions of my home town in the first few chapters. I definitely recognized the sort of “mansion on the hill” vibe he felt driving around all the ritzy areas with his mother.
I’m much younger than Moehringer. By the time I got to Publicans Steve Schnitzer had passed and much of the romance of the place was fading. But I vividly remember one of my fellow bus boys telling me about a kid who used to hang around Publicans and make notes of all the interesting goings-on. “He’s going to write a book about it someday” my friend said. I just thought that was cool.
August 10th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Thanks, Peter, for the follow-up. It’s funny, but now that I’ve read that book, Manhasset — a town I don’t think I’d ever heard of — seems to appear in articles I read every day.
And Mr. DJ — Love the inscription on your book. The ironic thing is that you wouldn’t let me borrow it.
August 10th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Peter: At the reading that I attended, Moehringer was asked how he could possibly remember the conversations that went on at Publicans. He said that he realized at the time that they were classic exchanges and wrote them down on cocktail napkins - which he still has.
Shaft: I’ll keep you posted on the local readings. Few readings are as classic as this one, however. Mrs. Cayenne rarely threatens to come to blows with the authors of books that she loved, for example. I love the inscription, and my copy is now a prized possession. The last thing I needed was the drippings of a Shaft panini all over my book. Plus, what if your house burned down? My book could be lost in the ruins. Or it could have ended up at the bottom of a box in one of your endless moves. No. There was too much at stake to risk it. This one was staying home where I could keep an eye on it. You’re always welcome to anything else in our stacks.