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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
I have two confessions... I didn't know this was a memoir until I started reading it. Actually (not the second confession yet), I didn't know a memoir is quite close to a biography. And I don't read biographies. I read long time ago Bob Marley's biography and just hated it. Will this change? probably not, but this was an amazing read.
The second confession? It made me think about myself as a father, a lot. This book is able to get to your guts. And it's just so beautifully written. Absolutely worth it.
The second confession? It made me think about myself as a father, a lot. This book is able to get to your guts. And it's just so beautifully written. Absolutely worth it.
Here's the conundrum about this book: unless you are actually drinking while you read it, you are probably not going to understand or appreciate the scenes set in the bar. Perhaps that is why the early chapters set during his boyhood seem more effective. Life is just more interesting and intense when liberally sprinkled with alcohol, but it's hard to convey that on dry paper.
With the right director and actors, it could be a very interesting film, however.
With the right director and actors, it could be a very interesting film, however.
Beautiful memoir of growing up and into and out of a city. And a bar, always that bar. No surprise that I would relish TTB, as Moehringer would go on to ghost-write Andre Agassi's own autobiography. My eyes inhaled that read, and not just because a lot of it was about tennis.
Love this wit and wisdom from "Father Amtrak" in TTB's Chapter 24:
"Can I tell you something?" the priest asked. "Do you know why God invented writers? Because He loves a good story. And he doesn't give a damn about words. Words are the curtain we've hung between Him and our true selves. Try not to think about the words. Don't strain for the perfect sentence. There's no such thing. Writing is guesswork. Every sentence is an educated guess, the reader's as much as yours. Think about that the next time you curl a piece of paper into your typewriter."
Love this wit and wisdom from "Father Amtrak" in TTB's Chapter 24:
"Can I tell you something?" the priest asked. "Do you know why God invented writers? Because He loves a good story. And he doesn't give a damn about words. Words are the curtain we've hung between Him and our true selves. Try not to think about the words. Don't strain for the perfect sentence. There's no such thing. Writing is guesswork. Every sentence is an educated guess, the reader's as much as yours. Think about that the next time you curl a piece of paper into your typewriter."
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
An excellently written memoir. Funny, reflective, detailed -- and yes, tender. Strikes a great balance between themes and reality, focus and breath, philosophy and description.
Moehringer's life is so utterly different from my own that it was hard for this book to really pierce me. But maybe that's what I enjoyed about it - the insight into a person who's not very much like myself.
Moehringer's life is so utterly different from my own that it was hard for this book to really pierce me. But maybe that's what I enjoyed about it - the insight into a person who's not very much like myself.
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Interesting memoir of a man and his bar. Moehringer shares his upbringing and the influence of the local bar on his life, the examples (both positive and negative) that were offered there, the encouragement and discouragement he received, and his longing for belonging. It certainly offered an interesting social commentary about the sense of belonging in our society and it encourages me to think about where we might find that outside of a bar.
I really enjoyed reading The Tender Bar. The author drew me into his wonderfully rendered characters in his memoir of growing up in Manhasset , Long Island in the 70's and 80's. JR Moehringer grew up with an absent father and a dysfunctional family. He sought out the company of some hard drinking men at the local bar where his uncle Charlie tended bar. He found something in each of them men who helped him become a man. He recounts his conversations with these men which cover philosophy, sports, heart ache and family issues. I really cared about him and these men and his mother in the end. Interesting that he helped Andre Agassi write his autobiography because I liked that as well.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Very interesting way of looking at ones life and beautifully told, you really begin to feel for the main characters as if you were the main character himself
I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. It's about a fatherless young man in the 1980's who finds father figures and solace at a local bar -- it took me a while to get into, but by 1/3 of the way in, I was hooked and looking forward to picking it up each night. It's a testimony to Moehringer's writing -- so rich with detail and yet seemingly effortless (a far cry from his college papers, apparently!). Set in his hometown of Manhasset, Long Island, it also made a perfect follow up to a recent re-reading of The Great Gatsby. Highly recommend.