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Narrated by David Aaron Baker
Ivan DoigUnabridged — 14 hours, 54 minutes
Narrated by David Aaron Baker
Ivan DoigUnabridged — 14 hours, 54 minutes
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…the rewards of The Bartender's Tale—a subtle and engaging narrative, characters who behave the way real people behave, the joys of careful and loving observation—remain very great and extremely rare. We live in a marketplace where the loudest and the lowest generally triumph, and Doig's new book is neither. Be glad there's still room for it, at least for now.
—Jon Clinch
The summer of 1960 stretches wide in Doig’s highly textured and evocative new novel, which returns to Work Song and The Whistling Season’s Two Medicine County, Mont. After living half his life in Phoenix, Ariz., with his aunt, 12-year-old Russell “Rusty” Harry comes back to the tiny town of Gros Ventre to live with his father, Tom, the owner of a popular saloon. Rusty’s mother has been gone since she and Tom “split the blanket” 12 years ago. Rusty entertains himself in the cavernous back room, which Tom operates like a pawnshop, taking in all manner of miscellany so sheepherders, ranchers, and others can pay for their drinks. When a local cafe comes under new ownership, 12-year-old Zoe Constantine shows up and soon becomes Rusty’s partner in crime in the backroom, listening to the bar through a concealed air vent. It’s a summer of change and new arrivals, as Delano Robertson, from Washington, D.C., comes to Gros Ventre to record the “Missing Voices” of America, followed by the mysterious and sultry Proxy Duff and her 21-year-old daughter, Francine, who both claim a special connection to Tom. Filtering the world through Rusty’s eyes, Doig gives us a poignant saga of a boy becoming a man alongside a town and a bygone way of life inching into the modern era. Agent: Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff & Verrill. (Aug.)
An easy-paced memory of Americana, childhood, dreams, and reality set in Montana in the late 1950s is revealed through Doig's excellent writing and David Baker's equally high-quality narration. Through the viewpoint of Rusty from ages seven to 12, the reader is introduced to a variety of exotic characters starting with the boy's father, with whom he has had scant contact up to the beginning of the story. As Rusty's only visible parent, Tom Harry, the owner and bartender of the Medicine Lodge, takes over the care and feeding of his son. Baker's crusty interpretation of Tom contrasts wonderfully with Rusty's childlike though not childish voice. VERDICT As open and simple as the prairie sky, as deep and complicated as the rushing waters of the rivers, this is a book for a multitude of readers. ["Recommended for fans of old-fashioned, big-hearted, feel-good novels," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Riverhead: Penguin hc, LJ 7/12.—Ed.]—J. Sara Paulk, Wythe-Grayson Regional Lib., Independence, VA
The year is 1960, and the protagonist at the center of this "bartender's tale" is Tom Harry, a beloved, no-nonsense bartender in Gros Ventre, MT, a sleepy town in remote northern sheep country. Tom is also a single father working long hours, trying to raise his 12-year-old son, Rusty, in this enjoyable, old-fashioned, warmhearted story about fathers and sons, growing up, and big life changes. Rusty is the narrator of the novel, and Doig (The Whistling Season) brings the young man's voice and perspective skillfully to life here. Rusty is puzzled by most of what he sees in the adult world, and there is little he can be sure of, except the love of his father. Doig poignantly captures the charm and pathos of Rusty's efforts to understand this complicated and often baffling adult world. Doig is famous for celebrating the American West, and he also beautifully captures the cadences and details of daily life in this Montana town. VERDICT Recommended for fans of generous, feel-good novels. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/12]—Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
During “the summer of everything” in 1960, 12-year-old Rusty Harry falls in love, develops a taste for drama and story, and learns the truth about his dad's mysterious trips to Canada. David Aaron Baker's thoughtful, reflective reading accentuates Ivan Doig's ability to tell a good story replete with detail. Deliberate pauses force scenes to unfold in real time and allow characters to listen and respond to one other. The dialogue is rich with regional colloquialisms and authentic slang, and Baker is pitch-perfect in delivering them. Most notably, Rusty’s father, Tom Harry, a world-weary bartender and dedicated bachelor, has a voice to match his trademark streak of gray hair, and despite some trying circumstances, he always manages to keep his language in check for Rusty's benefit. A.S. 2013 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
His father's past both unsettles and entices Rusty Harry in Doig's latest loving portrait of Montana and its crusty inhabitants (Work Song, 2010, etc.). Some of Doig's best work (English Creek, 1984; The Whistling Season, 2006) has been narrated by young adolescents; the inquisitive perspective of boys puzzling out adult ways seems to suit an author with a sharp eye for the revealing particulars of everyday human behavior. Twelve-year-old Rusty is no exception, and the air vent in the back room of his father Tom's saloon, the Medicine Lodge, gives him an earful of grown-up goings-on in the town of Gros Ventre. But it's outsiders who really stir things up in the summer of 1960. First to arrive is Zoe, daughter of the local restaurant's new owners, who quickly becomes Rusty's best friend and, after they see a vividly described outdoor production of As You Like It, his fellow aspiring thespian. Next is Delano Robertson, an oral historian who wants Tom to help him gather reminiscences at the forthcoming reunion of workers from the New Deal's Fort Peck dam project--a period in his past the bartender does not seem anxious to recollect. We learn why (readers of Bucking the Sun, 1996, will already have guessed) at the reunion, where Tom is stunned by the appearance of Proxy, a taxi dancer at the wide-open bar he ran back then, who announces the existence of a daughter from their one-time fling. Disheveled Francine needs a refuge and a profession, so Tom agrees to let her learn his trade at the Medicine Lodge, while Rusty anxiously wonders if Proxy might be his long-gone mother. Doig expertly spins out these various narrative threads with his usual gift for bringing history alive in the odysseys of marvelously thorny characters. Possibly the best novel yet by one of America's premier storytellers.
| BN ID: | 2940171108298 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
| Publication date: | 08/21/2012 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,159,748 |
