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lcsmcat's review
4.0
I love Doig's gentle prose. This was not as tightly woven as many of his stories, but a pleasure to read nontheless.
klgreen's review
1.0
I generally like character studies and don't usually mind a slower pace, but this book just did not do it for me. I kept waiting for something...anything...engaging to happen. But, even the "big reveal" at the end just kind of limped in. It was touted as a coming of age story about the summer one boy's world was turned upside down. But, in the end, it felt like the world merely tilted slightly.
harrietaspy's review
3.0
Really quick story with interesting characters. I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
tonstantweader's review
3.0
In Ivan Doig’s The Bartenders’s Tale, Rusty’s young life took a turn for the better when he was six years old. He was the result of an accident between the sheets and was being raised by his Aunt Marge and tortured by his older cousins. At six, his father rescued him and took him back to Gros Ventre, Montana to live with him. Tom Harry, his father is the World’s Best Bartender, a listener who soaks up the stories and troubles of his customers as he polishes the bar with his white towel. He is no talker, he’s a listener, and he tells no tales.
His father teaches him to fish, lets him play in the back room of the bar which filled to the rafters with gear, tack and fascinating bits and pieces of the West that customers short of money have exchanged for their beer. His dad occasionally heads off to Canada to sell off some of the stuff for some extra money, something that always leaves Rusty fraught with fears of loss and abandonment. Those six years with Aunt Marge loom large in part because his father is unaware of his fears and not being a demonstrative or talkative man, is unable to provide the reassurance he needs.
Things change during the summer of Rusty’s twelfth year. He gets to work one day a week cleaning the bar, being in the front with his dad. He meets a new friend, Zoe, with whom he becomes inseparable. Del, a collector of stories and dialects comes to town to encourage Tom to go to a reunion bringing together the folks who worked on the Fort Peck Dam and Proxy, a long-lost associate of Tom’s delivers his 21 year old daughter to his door, a daughter he never knew existed so she can learn the bartending trade.
So much is happening and it’s all so exciting and Rusty can hardly understand it all – and while he needs so many answers from his father, he instead spends hours analyzing and assessing everything with his best friend Zoe. It’s a lovely story of childhood that rings true. Rusty is a great kid, kind, generous and perceptive, but he’s still a kid and gets things wrong. He really needs answers from his dad and eventually he does. His dad does have a story to tell him and when he finally tells him, Rusty is freed from doubt. But it’s a fun and heartwarming story getting there.
The rest of the review is on my blog at https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/the-bartenders-tale-by-ivan-doig/
His father teaches him to fish, lets him play in the back room of the bar which filled to the rafters with gear, tack and fascinating bits and pieces of the West that customers short of money have exchanged for their beer. His dad occasionally heads off to Canada to sell off some of the stuff for some extra money, something that always leaves Rusty fraught with fears of loss and abandonment. Those six years with Aunt Marge loom large in part because his father is unaware of his fears and not being a demonstrative or talkative man, is unable to provide the reassurance he needs.
Things change during the summer of Rusty’s twelfth year. He gets to work one day a week cleaning the bar, being in the front with his dad. He meets a new friend, Zoe, with whom he becomes inseparable. Del, a collector of stories and dialects comes to town to encourage Tom to go to a reunion bringing together the folks who worked on the Fort Peck Dam and Proxy, a long-lost associate of Tom’s delivers his 21 year old daughter to his door, a daughter he never knew existed so she can learn the bartending trade.
So much is happening and it’s all so exciting and Rusty can hardly understand it all – and while he needs so many answers from his father, he instead spends hours analyzing and assessing everything with his best friend Zoe. It’s a lovely story of childhood that rings true. Rusty is a great kid, kind, generous and perceptive, but he’s still a kid and gets things wrong. He really needs answers from his dad and eventually he does. His dad does have a story to tell him and when he finally tells him, Rusty is freed from doubt. But it’s a fun and heartwarming story getting there.
The rest of the review is on my blog at https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/the-bartenders-tale-by-ivan-doig/
thunderbird's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. It had the feel of To Kill A Mockingbird, but without the social justice angle. It was sometimes a little rambling, but it was a lovely tale about family and family secrets, with a fun background in local, small-town color. A really good read.
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