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The Tender Bar

A Memoir

By J.R. Moehringer

(17)

| Hardcover | 9781401300647

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Book Description

A moving, vividly told memoir full of heart, drama, and exquisite comic timing, about a boy striving to become a man, and his romance with a barJ .R. Moehringer grew up listening for a voice: It was the sound of his missing father, a disc jockey who disappeared before J.R. spoke his first words. As Continue

A moving, vividly told memoir full of heart, drama, and exquisite comic timing, about a boy striving to become a man, and his romance with a barJ .R. Moehringer grew up listening for a voice: It was the sound of his missing father, a disc jockey who disappeared before J.R. spoke his first words. As a boy, J.R. would press his ear to a clock radio, straining to hear in that resonant voice the secrets of masculinity, and the keys to his own identity. J.R.+s mother was his world, his anchor, but he needed something else, something more, something he couldn+t name. So he turned to the bar on the corner, a grand old New York saloon that was a sanctuary for all types of men-cops and poets, actors and lawyers, gamblers and stumblebums. The flamboyant characters along the bar-including J.R.+s Uncle Charlie, a Humphrey Bogart look-alike; Colt, a Yogi Bear sound-alike; Joey D, a soft-hearted brawler; and Cager, a war hero who raised handicapping horses to an art-taught J.R., tended him, and provided a kind of fatherhood by committee. When the time came for J.R. to leave home, the bar became a way station-from his entrance to Yale, where he floundered as a scholarship student way out of his element; to his introduction to tragic romance with a woman way out of his league; to his stint as a copy boy at the New York Times, where he was a faulty cog in a vast machine way out of his control. Through it all, the bar offered shelter from failure, from rejection, and eventually from reality-until at last the bar turned J.R. away.Riveting, moving, and achingly funny, The Tender Bar is at once an evocative portrait of one boy+s struggle to become a man, and a touching depiction of how some men remain lost boys.

Critics

  • THE TENDER BAR

    Take one part CHARMING BILLY, a dash of Frank McCourt, add a shot of "Cheers," serve straight up, and you'll have the charming concoction that is THE TENDER BAR. J.R. Moehringer fondly reflects on his youth, however misspent, within the cooling shado ... (read full critics)

    teenreads published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

  • THE TENDER BAR

    Take one part CHARMING BILLY, a dash of Frank McCourt, add a shot of "Cheers," serve straight up, and you'll have the charming concoction that is THE TENDER BAR. J.R. Moehringer fondly reflects on his youth, however misspent, within the cooling shado ... (read full critics)

    teenreads published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

3 Reviews

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  • bre easton ellis dal cuore buono

    L'ho scoperto perché due famosi scrittori, piperno e baricco, hanno definito questo autore di bravura impressionante, o mostruosa, non ricordo. Ha scritto come ghostwriter anche la biografia di agassi, open. Il libro è bello ma lui non è di una bravura mostruosa. Se lo fosse poi non ci sarebbero agg ... (continue)

    L'ho scoperto perché due famosi scrittori, piperno e baricco, hanno definito questo autore di bravura impressionante, o mostruosa, non ricordo. Ha scritto come ghostwriter anche la biografia di agassi, open. Il libro è bello ma lui non è di una bravura mostruosa. Se lo fosse poi non ci sarebbero aggettivi per definire Amis, Nabokov, Updike, McCarthy, giusto per citare il primo grappolo di nomi che mi sono venuti in mente.
    Si tratta di un libro di memorie, non-fiction ma scritto con l'andatura e il passo di un romanzo. E' un miscuglio di Dickens, L'iliade, fitzgerald, film con Michael J Fox e McInerney.
    A leggerlo fa venir voglia di scrivere.
    Ruota attorno a un bar che prima si chiama Dickens e poi Publicans; un bar così non credo esista in italia. Ancora mi viene in mente una frase di ovosodo in cui il protagonista dice che nella cerchia del bar pronunciare un congiuntivo di troppo poteva bollarti come finocchio. In questo pub tutti, gli avventori, i protagonista sembrano dei docenti universitari senza il pantano dell’università, sono witty, eleganti, grandi lettori e affabulatori, agili e grandi bevitori di cocktail. Personaggi quasi fantastici o trasfigurati dal narratore, visto che un figlio senza padre e che è assetato di figure paterne, di guide, di voci calde e abbracci e punti di riferimento. A differenza di Ellis dove questa assenza fa saltare i pavimenti del mondo, e ogni frammento di realtà è un pertugio da cui escono spettri, alieni violenti, privi di pietà.
    Lo consiglierei alle donne per far capire loro quanto è difficile essere uomini; quanto faticoso la ricerca di virilità, virilità come virtù, come re artù, e non come barbablù.
    Ci siamo capiti?

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    Marcotull said on Dec 30, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • I loved this book!! I had heard about it this spring when I went to WEMA and from one our staff members at HHS. Moehringer made me laugh out loud and cry. He wrote so well that at times I was so frustrated with him I wanted to yell at him as if I was his mother! I am so excited this book just came o ... (continue)

    I loved this book!! I had heard about it this spring when I went to WEMA and from one our staff members at HHS. Moehringer made me laugh out loud and cry. He wrote so well that at times I was so frustrated with him I wanted to yell at him as if I was his mother! I am so excited this book just came out in paperback, so I can suggest it for book club. Moehringer refered to The Great Gatsby a lot as well as other classic literature which kind makes me want to re-visit those or try some out. My favorite parts...the first time J.R. went to the beach with the men and when J.R. met and got to know Bill and Bud. I am looking forward to reading this again.8/1/2006--I saw J.R.!! He looks so much better in person. He spoke at a bookstore in Milwaukee, WI. He was wonderful. He made us laugh and had some of us close to tears. I look forward to reading his articles in the L.A. Times. He called himself a "literary journalist".

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    SheReads said on Mar 6, 2007 | Add your feedback

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