Review of THE TENDER BAR (Hardcover)

This is one of those books that paralyzes the reviewer in its beauty.What can I say to convince you to read this book?Ideally, I'd just highlight every single line and make you read it.

It is nearly impossible to pin down one theme Moehringer's memoir is about:Fatherless boys?Working class moms trying to make ends meet?The search for a father figure in a crowd of bartenders?The genesis of a journalist, of a writer?The life of a blue-collar Yalie?Determining one's purpose in life?An intense character study of men in a bar?The rebellion of a son against his mom's intense love and support?Society's love affair with alcohol? In the end, this memoir is all of this and so much more, told in marvelous prose.

The author biography in the back jacket flap reveals that Moehringer is a Pulitzer Prize winner and national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.These facts will help buoy the reader when our author is failing out of Yale, failing at life, or struggling to get promoted beyond his hard-won copyboy position at the New York Times.Moehringer searches for purpose, reason, motivations, and positive reinforcement (other than from his mother).He especially struggles with his unpublished novel, which he worked on for close to a decade (and which I suspect became the basis for his memoir, since the novel was reportedly largely autobiographical).

This is one of those books one needs to own, for the underlining of critical passages and literary references to review again later.Be prepared to get intimate with the tough, ruddy-faced bartenders and barkeeps of Publicans (especially Uncle Charlie, who I have known in another body in my own life), and to put Steve's bar on the list of places to visit before you die.




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