The Tender Bar | 
|  | | | Title: | The Tender Bar | | Author: | J. R. Moehringer | | Publisher: | Hyperion | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 01 August, 2006 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0786888768 / 9780786888764 | | List Price: | $14.95 | | You Save: | $4.78 | | Amazon Price: | $10.17 | |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
"Long before it legally served me, the bar saved me," asserts J.R. Moehringer, and his compelling memoir The Tender Bar is the story of how and why. A Pulitzer-Prize winning writer for the Los Angeles Times, Moehringer grew up fatherless in pub-heavy Manhasset, New York, in a ramshackle house crammed with cousins and ruled by an eccentric, unkind grandfather.Desperate for a paternal figure, he turns first to his father, a DJ whom he can only access via the radio (Moehringer calls him The Voice and pictures him as "talking smoke"). When The Voice suddenly disappears from the airwaves, Moehringer turns to his hairless Uncle Charlie, and subsequently, Uncle Charlie's place of employment--a bar called Dickens that soon takes center stage. While Moehringer may occasionally resort to an overwrought metaphor (the footsteps of his family sound like "storm troopers on stilts"), his writing moves at a quick clip and his tale of a dysfunctional but tightly knit community is warmly told. "While I fear that we're drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we're defined by what embraces us," Moehringer says, and his story makes us believe it. --Brangien Davis
Amazon.com
"Long before it legally served me, the bar saved me," asserts J.R. Moehringer, and his compelling memoir The Tender Bar is the story of how and why. A Pulitzer-Prize winning writer for the Los Angeles Times, Moehringer grew up fatherless in pub-heavy Manhasset, New York, in a ramshackle house crammed with cousins and ruled by an eccentric, unkind grandfather. Desperate for a paternal figure, he turns first to his father, a DJ whom he can only access via the radio (Moehringer calls him The Voice and pictures him as "talking smoke"). When The Voice suddenly disappears from the airwaves, Moehringer turns to his hairless Uncle Charlie, and subsequently, Uncle Charlie's place of employment--a bar called Dickens that soon takes center stage. While Moehringer may occasionally resort to an overwrought metaphor (the footsteps of his family sound like "storm troopers on stilts"), his writing moves at a quick clip and his tale of a dysfunctional but tightly knit community is warmly told. "While I fear that we're drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we're defined by what embraces us," Moehringer says, and his story makes us believe it. --Brangien Davis
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Customer Reviews:
• Bravo 11 June, 2008
The less than 5 star reviewers are not understanding this story. JR's memoir is not about a bar, not about avoiding a life of achoholism, not about whining over misfortune, and not about overcomming childhood challenges. The real story here is sharing boldly and courageously what it is like to grow up fatherless. JR speaks for all of us men who grew up without fathers and his medium is great storytelling. While "growing up" we really were always searching for the right templates for manhood. We would grab ahold of anyone who paid attention! That could be good and that could be bad, but fortunatly for our author, the men at the bar were ultimately a good influence, not all of them as career path role models, but certainly as "man models" and that is what was needed. It is impossible (no criticism) for individuals who grew up with a father to empathize. This is not whining, it is just plain being honest and sharing what it is like. JR's memoir resonates with all of us "fatherless boys" and he must be reviewed from that perspective. For those of you who would like to know what goes through our minds and our orientation to the world, this is great primer/story. BRAVO JR.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A31NYHV6HHH9FU
• An Interesting Read 05 April, 2008
This was an interesting read. It felt a bit lenghty at times - redundant. But overall, a satisfying read with some good discussion at book club.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A16Q0B0Q2BHTLJ
• Ascent Of Man 21 May, 2008
This one almost makes you want to go back into those murky waters polluted by the likes of a Million Little Pieces and Running with Scissors. Almost, but not quite.
To be sure, J.R. Moehringer, Yale graduate, national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Pulitzer Prize winner, knows how to write. His story, told with a certain Rocky-Balboa, only in America, ascendancy, begins with his father skipping out. Abandoned, uneducated and sickly, his mother is forced to eke out a meager existence for her child and herself in their hometown of Manhasset, Long Island, NY. Young JR loves his mom, wants to provide for her, but doesn't know how. He craves for a father figure. He eventually finds one in a bar called Publican's. Populated with misfits of every stripe, none are sufficiently complete to serve as mentor. Piecemeal, they have all the qualities any boy would want in a father. Steve is a natural leader. Cager is a prankster. Joey D is tough and fearless. DiPietro is smart and successful. And, Uncle Chaz knows horses, women, fights and baseball even if he is not so good at hoops. Selectively pieced together, they are like some sort of super-dad. When his mother moves them to Arizona, JR takes a job working as a cashier at a bookstore run by a couple of misfit book-worms. Having already mastered the art of selective composition at Publican's, JR manages to alloy Bud and Bill into a sort of Mr. Myogi for the aspiring Yalie. Wipe-on Gatsby, Wipe-off Rocky-Balboa. Wipe-on urbanity, Wipe-off Hicksville. If a Yalie knows just one thing about everything, then JR's book is here to tell you that composite fatherhood is almost as good as the real thing. He almost convinces. Almost.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A17A4ZKTTKYUG4
• Watching Someone You Care About Grow Up 03 June, 2008
I enjoyed reading this book, especially when J.R. talks about the book he wanted to write, especially the chapter in which J.R. includes a number of anecdotes & jokes he meant to include in the book he imagined. I enjoyed the process aspect of this book--the process through which we see Moehringer realize his insecurities and identify his alcoholism, problems with women, and the role the bar plays in his life. It's a little bit like watching someone you care about grow up.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3Q3IF6780CC5L
• Loved It. 22 June, 2008
Unbeleivably honest and extremely inspiring. Despite of what he has been through, he is now a successful journalist and a Pulitzer Prize winner. What is ironic is that his book ended up on the NY Times bestseller list. It is as if Moehringer is sticking his tongue out to the senior editors who previously declared him as "non NY Times material". It is a lesson in perseverance and endurance. One should always keep trying and never give up.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3RKVPIEHSZ4UW
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