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A review by bhnmt61
The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig
3.0
I read three reviews of this book in a row that said nothing happens for the first two thirds, and then by the time something does happen, it's too late to hold your interest. My experience was the opposite. The first half of this book is just so lovably Montanan. We've lived here for almost thirty years now, and the old Montana guy telling stories of his youth is such a part of the landscape that it feels as natural as the mountains on the horizon.
Montana is hardly the most extreme place on the planet, but it's extreme enough that you can talk about normal events and they sound a bit like tall tales. We were out on a walk and there was a yearling bear cub up a tree over by the Petersons' place. I was just heading out to the garden when golf-ball sized hail sent me diving back to the house. We were trying to figure out what to do with our kids' old trampoline when a big wind knocked down a 30-foot ponderosa and split the damn thing down the middle. (Those are all things that have happened to me.)
Doig gets this tone and voice exactly right for the first bit. But about the time Rusty, the narrator, and his Pop pack up and head for the Fort Peck dam reunion, it somehow derails. The voice starts to feel wrong, and I'm not sure how to explain it. No adult is going to be surprised or upset about hijinks that happened at an enormous construction site thirty years ago. But we get stuck in 12-year-old Rusty's finicky morality with none of the old-guy-reminiscing tone.
From Rusty's perspective, of course he needs a four-page explanation from his dad about what happened (not just once, but half a dozen times). But as an adult reading a book that is supposedly narrated by an adult reminiscing, it gets ridiculous how many times we have to read through Pop trying to justify himself to Rusty. That sense of an older man looking back with amusement on the events of long ago gets lost. And in losing that voice, I lost interest. I agreed with those other reviewers about one thing-- by the time the final surprise is revealed, I barely shrugged. Good enough to finish, but if you're new to Doig, read any of his earlier books instead.
Montana is hardly the most extreme place on the planet, but it's extreme enough that you can talk about normal events and they sound a bit like tall tales. We were out on a walk and there was a yearling bear cub up a tree over by the Petersons' place. I was just heading out to the garden when golf-ball sized hail sent me diving back to the house. We were trying to figure out what to do with our kids' old trampoline when a big wind knocked down a 30-foot ponderosa and split the damn thing down the middle. (Those are all things that have happened to me.)
Doig gets this tone and voice exactly right for the first bit. But about the time Rusty, the narrator, and his Pop pack up and head for the Fort Peck dam reunion, it somehow derails. The voice starts to feel wrong, and I'm not sure how to explain it. No adult is going to be surprised or upset about hijinks that happened at an enormous construction site thirty years ago. But we get stuck in 12-year-old Rusty's finicky morality with none of the old-guy-reminiscing tone.
From Rusty's perspective, of course he needs a four-page explanation from his dad about what happened (not just once, but half a dozen times). But as an adult reading a book that is supposedly narrated by an adult reminiscing, it gets ridiculous how many times we have to read through Pop trying to justify himself to Rusty. That sense of an older man looking back with amusement on the events of long ago gets lost. And in losing that voice, I lost interest. I agreed with those other reviewers about one thing-- by the time the final surprise is revealed, I barely shrugged. Good enough to finish, but if you're new to Doig, read any of his earlier books instead.