When I started The Tender Bar, I didn't know what to expect. I mean, no matter how good an author is, how much can you REALLY write about a bar? Skeptical, yet looking for something fresh, I started with this book. And as I read on, I began to comprehend why it was so widely popular.
JR Moehringer( I shall refer to his name, as he had wished it to be throughout the book- JR...without dots), has painted a story that is as unusual as his name. Raised by his mother alone, JR grew up amid a raging crowd of women, who in their own way tried to drop in an essence of their wisdom to make a man out of him. But he craved for the presence of a man in his life- starting with his father throughout most part of his childhood, followed by his Uncle Charlie and his motley gang from the bar; whom he could look up to, be influenced by and learn things that a boy usually does in his lifetime.
But all life handed to him of his father was his voice through a machine. As JR obsessively stuck his ear to the radio, trying the various frequencies to catch a whisper of his father's voice, his mother worked with all her might, to provide him with a normal childhood. And the hardships only seemed to increase in his and his mother's life, a great chunk of courtesy being dedicated to his father; which only swept JR ashore hatred and longing for his father...at the same time.
As the book progresses, Uncle Charlie and his friends' grand entry occurs, marking a turning point in the book as well as JR's life. He has written luminously about his attempts to understand and ape the way these men walked, talked, worked and lived. He was invariably taken to their sacred dwelling after every gathering-'Publicans', the bar; which JR started associating with everything that he had vied for to be a man.
Soon, it became his temple too. He would rush to the bar to celebrate a success or to down an incurable sorrow or to simply assure himself of the goodness of life. The bar always stepped up to mesmerize him, teach him, soothe him and raise him.Over the years, he not only collected his awe for the bar but also innumerable napkins containing interesting dialogues and engaging discussions that took place in the bar. And JR has certainly written it in a way that almost makes every person in that scene come alive.
The men he looked up to, came in from as different backgrounds as the drinks served in the bar. They taught him how to pick himself up after taking blows of disappointment from life, how to calmly throw your strongest punch at your hurdles, how to figure out women(which in the end, even after their collective knowledge, was next to nothing) and the most important of all- what it took to be a man he always wanted to be. Not only does JR make you live these moments with him, but also gets you to respect these men the way he did and does.
As I finished the book, I was left with a drink of emotions, hilarity and understanding of this unique world, that felt as refreshing as one of Uncle Charlie's deftly mixed cocktail. If you are after a book which needs to be the right balance between intense and light, then you are gonna love this book as much as I did.
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