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Two Medicine Country #10
The Bartender's Tale
From a great American storyteller, a one-of-a-kind father and his precocious son, rocked by a time of change.
Tom Harry has a streak of frost in his black pompadour and a venerable bar called The Medicine Lodge, the chief watering hole and last refuge of the town of Gros Ventre, in northern Montana. Tom also has a son named Rusty, an “accident between the sheets” whose mother deserted them both years ago.The pair make an odd kind of family, with the bar their true home, but they manage just fine.
Until the summer of 1960, that is, when Rusty turns twelve. Change arrives with gale force, in the person of Proxy, a taxi dancer Tom knew back when, and her beatnik daughter, Francine. Is Francine, as Proxy claims, the unsuspected legacy of her and Tom’s past? Without a doubt she is an unsettling gust of the future, upending every certainty in Rusty’s life and generating a mist of passion and pretense that seems to obscure everyone’s vision but his own. As Rusty struggles to decipher the oddities of adult behavior and the mysteries build toward a reckoning, Ivan Doig wonderfully captures how the world becomes bigger and the past becomes more complex in the last moments of childhood.
Tom Harry has a streak of frost in his black pompadour and a venerable bar called The Medicine Lodge, the chief watering hole and last refuge of the town of Gros Ventre, in northern Montana. Tom also has a son named Rusty, an “accident between the sheets” whose mother deserted them both years ago.The pair make an odd kind of family, with the bar their true home, but they manage just fine.
Until the summer of 1960, that is, when Rusty turns twelve. Change arrives with gale force, in the person of Proxy, a taxi dancer Tom knew back when, and her beatnik daughter, Francine. Is Francine, as Proxy claims, the unsuspected legacy of her and Tom’s past? Without a doubt she is an unsettling gust of the future, upending every certainty in Rusty’s life and generating a mist of passion and pretense that seems to obscure everyone’s vision but his own. As Rusty struggles to decipher the oddities of adult behavior and the mysteries build toward a reckoning, Ivan Doig wonderfully captures how the world becomes bigger and the past becomes more complex in the last moments of childhood.
387 pages, Hardcover
First published August 8, 2012
983 people are currently reading
6335 people want to read
About the author
Ivan Doig
38 books785 followersIvan Doig was born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana to a family of homesteaders and ranch hands. After the death of his mother Berneta, on his sixth birthday, he was raised by his father Charles "Charlie" Doig and his grandmother Elizabeth "Bessie" Ringer. After several stints on ranches, they moved to Dupuyer, Pondera County, Montana in the north to herd sheep close to the Rocky Mountain Front.
After his graduation from Valier high school, Doig attended Northwestern University, where he received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in journalism. He later earned a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Washington, writing his dissertation about John J. McGilvra (1827-1903). He lived with his wife Carol Doig, née Muller, a university professor of English, in Seattle, Washington.
Before Ivan Doig became a novelist, he wrote for newspapers and magazines as a free-lancer and worked for the United States Forest Service.
Much of his fiction is set in the Montana country of his youth. His major theme is family life in the past, mixing personal memory and regional history. As the western landscape and people play an important role in his fiction, he has been hailed as the new dean of western literature, a worthy successor to Wallace Stegner.
Bibliography
His works includes both fictional and non-fictional writings. They can be divided into four groups:
Early Works
News: A Consumer's Guide (1972) - a media textbook coauthored by Carol Doig
Streets We Have Come Down: Literature of the City (1975) - an anthology edited by Ivan Doig
Utopian America: Dreams and Realities (1976) - an anthology edited by Ivan Doig
Autobiographical Books
This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind (1979) - memoirs based on the author's life with his father and grandmother (nominated for National Book Award)
Heart Earth (1993) - memoirs based on his mother's letters to her brother Wally
Regional Works
Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of America (1980) - an essayistic dialog with James G. Swan
The Sea Runners (1982) - an adventure novel about four Swedes escaping from New Archangel, today's Sitka, Alaska
Historical Novels
English Creek (1984)
Dancing at the Rascal Fair (1987)
Ride with Me, Mariah Montana (1990)
Bucking the Sun: A Novel (1996)
Mountain Time: A Novel (1999)
Prairie Nocturne: A Novel (2003)
The Whistling Season: A Novel (2006)
The Eleventh Man: A Novel (2008)
The first three Montana novels form the so-called McCaskill trilogy, covering the first centennial of Montana's statehood from 1889 to 1989.
from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Doig"
After his graduation from Valier high school, Doig attended Northwestern University, where he received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in journalism. He later earned a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Washington, writing his dissertation about John J. McGilvra (1827-1903). He lived with his wife Carol Doig, née Muller, a university professor of English, in Seattle, Washington.
Before Ivan Doig became a novelist, he wrote for newspapers and magazines as a free-lancer and worked for the United States Forest Service.
Much of his fiction is set in the Montana country of his youth. His major theme is family life in the past, mixing personal memory and regional history. As the western landscape and people play an important role in his fiction, he has been hailed as the new dean of western literature, a worthy successor to Wallace Stegner.
Bibliography
His works includes both fictional and non-fictional writings. They can be divided into four groups:
Early Works
News: A Consumer's Guide (1972) - a media textbook coauthored by Carol Doig
Streets We Have Come Down: Literature of the City (1975) - an anthology edited by Ivan Doig
Utopian America: Dreams and Realities (1976) - an anthology edited by Ivan Doig
Autobiographical Books
This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind (1979) - memoirs based on the author's life with his father and grandmother (nominated for National Book Award)
Heart Earth (1993) - memoirs based on his mother's letters to her brother Wally
Regional Works
Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of America (1980) - an essayistic dialog with James G. Swan
The Sea Runners (1982) - an adventure novel about four Swedes escaping from New Archangel, today's Sitka, Alaska
Historical Novels
English Creek (1984)
Dancing at the Rascal Fair (1987)
Ride with Me, Mariah Montana (1990)
Bucking the Sun: A Novel (1996)
Mountain Time: A Novel (1999)
Prairie Nocturne: A Novel (2003)
The Whistling Season: A Novel (2006)
The Eleventh Man: A Novel (2008)
The first three Montana novels form the so-called McCaskill trilogy, covering the first centennial of Montana's statehood from 1889 to 1989.
from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Doig"
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,593 reviews
December 7, 2018
This story tugged at many heartstrings many times over while reading it. Rusty (Russell) Harry is the narrator of the story and his perspective drew me in, enraptured me, and held me captive to what would happen next.
When he was a baby, his father left him with his sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews in Phoenix, Arizona while he did his best to pull together his saloon, The Medicine Lodge, in Gros Ventre, Montana. Tom (Thomas) Harry made frequent trips to take his son on vacations together but Rusty remembers his time in Phoenix as torture – excepting those precious vacations with his father. His uncle was hardly ever at home, his aunt so busy and preoccupied she didn’t notice her sons’ gleeful mischief and mistreatment of the much smaller boy. Rusty did his best not to cave to the pressure of not knowing when he would be set upon next, but it was tough going.
Suddenly, when he is six years old, his father comes to take him home to Gros Ventre. His entire life takes on new dimensions and he and his father rub along very well as senior and junior bachelors together for years. Then the summer holidays when Rusty is twelve, his life and his father’s change radically. Everything was still in its place – the saloon that kept them fed, the home that offered them a place to rest – but people started appearing in their lives that changed them both.
Rusty met his best friend and soul mate, strangers from the past pop up in their lives and shift things around – some may or may not be related to them, which adds to the confusion for Rusty. He also finds out his father is famous, relatively speaking, and that is part of the disturbance in their lives. Suddenly other people want time with Tom and some even want to lay claim to him.
The storytelling in this novel is flawless and all I wanted to do was be in the story 24/7. Just like Rusty’s life, however, other things in my world pulled me away several times. Even so, each time I picked up this book again the story wrapped me up in its humour, its mysteries, its thoughts and feelings as experienced by 12 year old Rusty.
This novel cements it for me: Ivan Doig is a fabulous storyteller and the speech patterns, rhythms, and odd phrases (many double negatives) felt so real in the conversations between characters that the narrative flowed with exceptional authenticity.
I highly recommend this to everyone who loves great storytelling, endearing characters, and writing that keeps you immersed throughout. What a wonderful reading experience this is!
When he was a baby, his father left him with his sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews in Phoenix, Arizona while he did his best to pull together his saloon, The Medicine Lodge, in Gros Ventre, Montana. Tom (Thomas) Harry made frequent trips to take his son on vacations together but Rusty remembers his time in Phoenix as torture – excepting those precious vacations with his father. His uncle was hardly ever at home, his aunt so busy and preoccupied she didn’t notice her sons’ gleeful mischief and mistreatment of the much smaller boy. Rusty did his best not to cave to the pressure of not knowing when he would be set upon next, but it was tough going.
Suddenly, when he is six years old, his father comes to take him home to Gros Ventre. His entire life takes on new dimensions and he and his father rub along very well as senior and junior bachelors together for years. Then the summer holidays when Rusty is twelve, his life and his father’s change radically. Everything was still in its place – the saloon that kept them fed, the home that offered them a place to rest – but people started appearing in their lives that changed them both.
Rusty met his best friend and soul mate, strangers from the past pop up in their lives and shift things around – some may or may not be related to them, which adds to the confusion for Rusty. He also finds out his father is famous, relatively speaking, and that is part of the disturbance in their lives. Suddenly other people want time with Tom and some even want to lay claim to him.
The storytelling in this novel is flawless and all I wanted to do was be in the story 24/7. Just like Rusty’s life, however, other things in my world pulled me away several times. Even so, each time I picked up this book again the story wrapped me up in its humour, its mysteries, its thoughts and feelings as experienced by 12 year old Rusty.
This novel cements it for me: Ivan Doig is a fabulous storyteller and the speech patterns, rhythms, and odd phrases (many double negatives) felt so real in the conversations between characters that the narrative flowed with exceptional authenticity.
I highly recommend this to everyone who loves great storytelling, endearing characters, and writing that keeps you immersed throughout. What a wonderful reading experience this is!
August 24, 2012
No one can turn the mundane to magic better than Ivan Doig, and the proof is in THE BARTENDER'S TALE. This is the fourth Doig novel I've read, and it may just be my favorite. Pull up a barstool, order a Select beer, and prepare to be enchanted.
Russell "Rusty" Harry is our narrator, an old man who takes us back to the summer of 1960 in the fictional town of Gros Ventre, Montana. Rusty was twelve that summer, and he and his father Tom had been living together in splendid bachelorhood for six years. They ate tomato soup for breakfast, fished for rainbow trout with chicken guts for bait, and kept the customers happy at the Medicine Lodge, where Tom Harry was known as the best bartender in Montana.
Twelve going on thirteen is an age of wonder. We're still young enough to enjoy childish pleasures, but old enough to begin snooping around in the adult world, collecting information the grown-ups have withheld from us all our lives. For Rusty, that adolescent excitement is heightened by the arrival of several eye-opening outsiders as the summer progresses.
Delano Robertson is a young man obsessed with regional vernacular. He shows up in Gros Ventre with his Gab Lab, ready to record the Missing Voices of the old-timers. His enthusiasm and good nature help him weather the embarrassing moments of initiation into Montana life.
Zoe Constantine moves into town from Butte when her parents take over the local diner. She and Rusty become co-conspirators as only twelve-year-olds can do. They spend the summer polishing their acting skills and eavesdropping on the Medicine Lodge patrons through a hidden vent.
Most disturbing of all, Proxy Shannon purrs on in from Reno driving a bright red Cadillac, with her grown daughter Francine in tow. Is Francine Tom's love child and Rusty's half-sister? And while we're on the subject of parenthood, why won't Tom tell Rusty who his mother was? Vague answers will no longer satisfy Rusty.
Quirky and complex characters, playful dialogue, and small-town shenanigans carry us through that summer of 1960 in the shadow of Glacier National Park. Adjust your gears to allow for a slower pace, and give yourself the time to fall in love.
The end of the story is not sad, but I cried when I finished. I had spent almost three weeks with these characters as my companions, and I didn't want to leave them. That's the sorcery of Ivan Doig. He invites us into his imaginary world and makes us feel so welcome that we would gladly trade our real lives for the chance to be one of his characters.
Russell "Rusty" Harry is our narrator, an old man who takes us back to the summer of 1960 in the fictional town of Gros Ventre, Montana. Rusty was twelve that summer, and he and his father Tom had been living together in splendid bachelorhood for six years. They ate tomato soup for breakfast, fished for rainbow trout with chicken guts for bait, and kept the customers happy at the Medicine Lodge, where Tom Harry was known as the best bartender in Montana.
Twelve going on thirteen is an age of wonder. We're still young enough to enjoy childish pleasures, but old enough to begin snooping around in the adult world, collecting information the grown-ups have withheld from us all our lives. For Rusty, that adolescent excitement is heightened by the arrival of several eye-opening outsiders as the summer progresses.
Delano Robertson is a young man obsessed with regional vernacular. He shows up in Gros Ventre with his Gab Lab, ready to record the Missing Voices of the old-timers. His enthusiasm and good nature help him weather the embarrassing moments of initiation into Montana life.
Zoe Constantine moves into town from Butte when her parents take over the local diner. She and Rusty become co-conspirators as only twelve-year-olds can do. They spend the summer polishing their acting skills and eavesdropping on the Medicine Lodge patrons through a hidden vent.
Most disturbing of all, Proxy Shannon purrs on in from Reno driving a bright red Cadillac, with her grown daughter Francine in tow. Is Francine Tom's love child and Rusty's half-sister? And while we're on the subject of parenthood, why won't Tom tell Rusty who his mother was? Vague answers will no longer satisfy Rusty.
Quirky and complex characters, playful dialogue, and small-town shenanigans carry us through that summer of 1960 in the shadow of Glacier National Park. Adjust your gears to allow for a slower pace, and give yourself the time to fall in love.
The end of the story is not sad, but I cried when I finished. I had spent almost three weeks with these characters as my companions, and I didn't want to leave them. That's the sorcery of Ivan Doig. He invites us into his imaginary world and makes us feel so welcome that we would gladly trade our real lives for the chance to be one of his characters.
September 15, 2018
The Bartender’s Tale is set in a small Montana town (Gros Ventre) nestled amidst sagebrush, fields green with alfalfa, and parades of sheep on the mountain slopes. For the local businessmen, ranchers and shepherds, the Medicine Lodge is a saloon of near-mythic status where Tom Harry, the legendary bartender, serves up just the right kind of drinks and conversation that magically match what each customer needs.
This heartwarming story is told from the perspective of 12-year-old Rusty who looks up to his bachelor bartender father as the ‘best human being’ and the ‘absolute best father of all time.’ Looked after by his paternal aunt in Phoenix when his father was busy tending bar, Rusty spent the first six years of his life terrorized by his older male cousins until his father brings him to Montana to share his life at the Medicine Lodge. Rusty is allowed to be in the backroom of the joint fixing up model planes but also eavesdropping on the stories of the customers through the air vent. He is lonely until Zoe, a girl his age, comes to town with her café owner parents, and the two become the best of friends. They both discover their calling in theatre that summer when Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ visited Gros Ventre. Some of the loveliest writing are of Tom connecting with his young son, introducing him to card games, driving him to the reservoir and together ‘giving the fish hell.’
Life looks rosy for Rusty but he is old enough to suspect that the past of which he knows nothing may catch up with the present. Tom never talks about himself nor does he tell Rusty about his mother. Rusty worries about his father who makes frequent sudden business trips to Canada ostensibly to sell the loot left by customers who are unable to pay for their booze. He wonders if there is a woman in his father’s life who will one day change both their existence.
Ivan Doig does an impressive job putting himself into the shoes of an adolescent boy and capturing how Rusty thinks and navigates his way around the adult world. Wonder, delight, and awe are mingled with uncertainty, befuddlement, and fear. There is engaging plot development that keeps the reader on edge in hopes that Rusty’s world will not be shaken and that the Medicine Lodge continues to be a haven of solace and joy.
Rusty recalls 1960, the momentous year marked by major life-changing events. Rusty greets these new developments with trepidation and so did I. Doig is a master storyteller and the truth surrounding Tom’s past is unraveled with consummate skill.
The Bartender’s Tale is my first novel by Ivan Doig and is highly recommended. Early days yet but I have a sense that Doig will become an author I put on my favorite shelf.
This heartwarming story is told from the perspective of 12-year-old Rusty who looks up to his bachelor bartender father as the ‘best human being’ and the ‘absolute best father of all time.’ Looked after by his paternal aunt in Phoenix when his father was busy tending bar, Rusty spent the first six years of his life terrorized by his older male cousins until his father brings him to Montana to share his life at the Medicine Lodge. Rusty is allowed to be in the backroom of the joint fixing up model planes but also eavesdropping on the stories of the customers through the air vent. He is lonely until Zoe, a girl his age, comes to town with her café owner parents, and the two become the best of friends. They both discover their calling in theatre that summer when Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ visited Gros Ventre. Some of the loveliest writing are of Tom connecting with his young son, introducing him to card games, driving him to the reservoir and together ‘giving the fish hell.’
Life looks rosy for Rusty but he is old enough to suspect that the past of which he knows nothing may catch up with the present. Tom never talks about himself nor does he tell Rusty about his mother. Rusty worries about his father who makes frequent sudden business trips to Canada ostensibly to sell the loot left by customers who are unable to pay for their booze. He wonders if there is a woman in his father’s life who will one day change both their existence.
Ivan Doig does an impressive job putting himself into the shoes of an adolescent boy and capturing how Rusty thinks and navigates his way around the adult world. Wonder, delight, and awe are mingled with uncertainty, befuddlement, and fear. There is engaging plot development that keeps the reader on edge in hopes that Rusty’s world will not be shaken and that the Medicine Lodge continues to be a haven of solace and joy.
Rusty recalls 1960, the momentous year marked by major life-changing events. Rusty greets these new developments with trepidation and so did I. Doig is a master storyteller and the truth surrounding Tom’s past is unraveled with consummate skill.
The Bartender’s Tale is my first novel by Ivan Doig and is highly recommended. Early days yet but I have a sense that Doig will become an author I put on my favorite shelf.
February 10, 2013
There was a time when I bought every Ivan Doig book published. "Dancing at Rascal Fair" is still on my list of all-time-best reads.
Then came "Bucking the Sun". I grew up 20 miles from Ft. Peck Dam. Went to high school with kids bussed in from Ft. Peck. I knew about the “dam towns” like Wheeler where the legendry Blue Eagle Tavern was run by bartender Tom Harry. My father arrived there in 1934 and sold water to businessmen and dam workers and their families alike. Something just felt “off” about "Bucking the Sun". It felt like Doig “tried too hard”.
Years passed. Then a friend loaned me The Bartender’s Tale and I fell in love with Doig all over again.
Like the narrator Rusty Harry, I grew up an only child who “lived in the back of the family business” in a small Montana town. At 12 Rusty and I had a lot in common. Believe me, Doig got all the nuances right. It’s a combination of being left on your own and helping out with the dirty work. Rusty swamped floors and polished the eyes of the dead animals that hung behind the bar. My job was mangling sheets and pillow cases in the motel laundry in the morning and manning the cash register later in the day. And all the time you listened.
The Medicine Lodge saloon, Tom Harry’s business in the mythical western town of Gros Ventre, reminds me of one of the bars I walked past on Front Street in my home town. In summer when the doors stayed open 16 hours a day, the smells of stale beer and unwashed men’s bodies made me hurry by. But I took a few good peeks inside and saw the big animal heads over the bar and felt the ambiance clear out on the sidewalk.
The story—of Rusty and his father Tom Harry (a multi-faceted man with a past), Rusty’s sidekick, a new-girl-in-town Zoe Constantine (also 12), Delano Robertson, newcomer who’s recording the voices of old-timers for a national project, Proxy Shannon from Tom’s Ft. Peck past and her daughter Francine—branches out every-which-way. The tale is like the two-story- high cottonwood tree named Igdrasil that grows in the alley between The Medicine Lodge saloon and Tom’s house in back.
And if the goings on in Gros Ventre and secret trips by Tom to Canada aren’t enough, wait until you accompany all the characters back to a 25th Ft. Peck reunion. And back again to Gros Ventre.
Don’t start reading "The Bartender’s Tale" unless you have a good-sized chunk of time to devote to reading. It will take over your life for 387 pages.
February 1, 2021
The late Ivan Doig’s eleventh novel opens this way:
“[W]ithout a basic good glass of beer, properly drawn and presented, a saloon was merely a booze trough.” – Ivan Doig, The Bartender’s Tale
For the first six years of his life, Rusty lived with his aunt and her two mean, unfriendly sons. At age six he was rescued from his miserable situation by his father, Tom Harry, the bartender and proprietor of the Medicine Lodge saloon in Gros Ventre, located in Montana’s Two Medicine River country along the Rocky Mountain Front, where most of Doig’s novels are set. Gros Ventre is the fictional name that Doig gave to the town of Dupuyer, which happens to be where the writer grew up, an area that he wrote about in his first book, the classic coming-of-age memoir, This House of Sky (1978).
Most of The Bartender’s Tale takes place in the summer of 1960, the year that Rusty turned twelve. It is a tale that is told through his eyes from the vantage point of middle age looking back fifty years to that summer, a summer in which Rusty learned a lifetime’s worth of knowledge about life and love and his father’s hidden history of a less than perfect life.
“The past casts a tricky shadow.” – Ivan Doig, The Bartender’s Tale
Doig was quoted as saying “I come from the lariat proletariat, the working-class point of view. I believe that ordinary people deserve to have their stories told.” He reaffirmed that belief with The Bartender’s Tale.”
Doig has a talent for writing stories from the perspective of children and young people. He demonstrated that knack right out of the chute with This House of Sky. Though a memoir, it informs his fiction in countless ways in terms of people, events, language, and geography. For example, the character of Tom Harry is partly based on an actual bartender (‘a listening bartender rather than a talky one’) at The Stockman Bar in White Sulfur Springs, Montana where Doig was born and lived for the first few years of his life.
At a young age Doig lost his mother and was raised by his father and his maternal grandmother. I suppose it is only logical that his young protagonists would be orphans or have only one parent. That is not exactly true in the case of The Bartender’s Tale, for Rusty has two parents, but his mother abandoned him when he was a baby.
If you have read any of Doig’s other novels, you already know about the setting of this novel and you may remember some of its characters and some of its events that were recounted in other novels. That would be especially true of Bucking the Sun (1996), a novel about the construction of the Depression-era Missouri River dam at Ft. Peck, a massive project which at the time resulted in the largest earth-filled dam in the world and provided jobs for ten thousand workers, creating a wide-open Western boom town.
Tom Harry, the owner of the Medicine Lodge saloon in Gros Ventre, had made appearances as a minor character in three of Doig’s earlier novels, including Bucking the Sun. In that story he was the owner of the Blue Eagle saloon in Ft. Peck. As Doig had a tendency to do, he took what had been a minor character in an earlier novel (or as in this instance, earlier novels) and made him the main protagonist of this later novel. However, his books are not strictly sequels or prequels and can be read as standalone stories.
Doig had undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism at Northwestern University and later graduated with a PhD in history from the University of Washington. As a result, he had an eye for details of language, landscape, and historical facts. It is the summer of 1960, so the reader gets references to films such as The Alamo and GI Blues. Several times he mentions the film, The Misfits, which happens to be the last film for Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, and Montgomery Clift.
I’m going to give the novelist Jon Clinch the last word:
My father was the best bartender who ever lived. No one really questioned that in a town like Gros Ventre, glad of any honor, or out in the lonely sheep camps and bunkhouses and other parched locations of the Two Medicine country, where the Medicine Lodge saloon was viewed as a nearly holy oasis.
“[W]ithout a basic good glass of beer, properly drawn and presented, a saloon was merely a booze trough.” – Ivan Doig, The Bartender’s Tale
For the first six years of his life, Rusty lived with his aunt and her two mean, unfriendly sons. At age six he was rescued from his miserable situation by his father, Tom Harry, the bartender and proprietor of the Medicine Lodge saloon in Gros Ventre, located in Montana’s Two Medicine River country along the Rocky Mountain Front, where most of Doig’s novels are set. Gros Ventre is the fictional name that Doig gave to the town of Dupuyer, which happens to be where the writer grew up, an area that he wrote about in his first book, the classic coming-of-age memoir, This House of Sky (1978).
Most of The Bartender’s Tale takes place in the summer of 1960, the year that Rusty turned twelve. It is a tale that is told through his eyes from the vantage point of middle age looking back fifty years to that summer, a summer in which Rusty learned a lifetime’s worth of knowledge about life and love and his father’s hidden history of a less than perfect life.
“The past casts a tricky shadow.” – Ivan Doig, The Bartender’s Tale
Doig was quoted as saying “I come from the lariat proletariat, the working-class point of view. I believe that ordinary people deserve to have their stories told.” He reaffirmed that belief with The Bartender’s Tale.”
Doig has a talent for writing stories from the perspective of children and young people. He demonstrated that knack right out of the chute with This House of Sky. Though a memoir, it informs his fiction in countless ways in terms of people, events, language, and geography. For example, the character of Tom Harry is partly based on an actual bartender (‘a listening bartender rather than a talky one’) at The Stockman Bar in White Sulfur Springs, Montana where Doig was born and lived for the first few years of his life.
At a young age Doig lost his mother and was raised by his father and his maternal grandmother. I suppose it is only logical that his young protagonists would be orphans or have only one parent. That is not exactly true in the case of The Bartender’s Tale, for Rusty has two parents, but his mother abandoned him when he was a baby.
If you have read any of Doig’s other novels, you already know about the setting of this novel and you may remember some of its characters and some of its events that were recounted in other novels. That would be especially true of Bucking the Sun (1996), a novel about the construction of the Depression-era Missouri River dam at Ft. Peck, a massive project which at the time resulted in the largest earth-filled dam in the world and provided jobs for ten thousand workers, creating a wide-open Western boom town.
Tom Harry, the owner of the Medicine Lodge saloon in Gros Ventre, had made appearances as a minor character in three of Doig’s earlier novels, including Bucking the Sun. In that story he was the owner of the Blue Eagle saloon in Ft. Peck. As Doig had a tendency to do, he took what had been a minor character in an earlier novel (or as in this instance, earlier novels) and made him the main protagonist of this later novel. However, his books are not strictly sequels or prequels and can be read as standalone stories.
Doig had undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism at Northwestern University and later graduated with a PhD in history from the University of Washington. As a result, he had an eye for details of language, landscape, and historical facts. It is the summer of 1960, so the reader gets references to films such as The Alamo and GI Blues. Several times he mentions the film, The Misfits, which happens to be the last film for Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, and Montgomery Clift.
I’m going to give the novelist Jon Clinch the last word:
In a culture obsessed with texting but careless about text, where a winner of the Pulitzer Prize tweets a story for the New Yorker in 140 characters at a time, what on Earth are we to make of this slow-paced new novel from 73-year-old Ivan Doig? The Bartender’s Tale works slowly, building up observations such as this one: “People come and go in our lives; that’s as old a story as there is. But some of them the heart cries out to keep forever, and that is a fresh saga every time.” That adds up to 158 characters right there – one an economical, old-fashioned semicolon – and I don’t know how a person could whittle away 18 of them without losing something essential.
March 2, 2022
Listening with Simon. I thought it was about time he discover the wonderful writing of Ivan Doig.
Well, after listening for about 3-hours we felt like the story wasn't going anywhere and took a hiatus. When we picked it back up again, we became engaged with the relationship between Zoë and Rusty and their acting adventures. I also enjoyed the passages where the shepherd demonstrates how much he loves and cares for his sheep. As time went by, I think Simon remained more engaged than I did. However, I did enjoy some of the prose.
Favorite quotes:
"I'll lose my grant! You have no idea how cutthroat the library world can be!" So true!
"History only licenses us to drive in the past. The road ahead is always full of blind curves."
"If this is not Biblical, I shall always believe it should be - that all of us need someone who loves us enough to forgive us despite the history."
Well, after listening for about 3-hours we felt like the story wasn't going anywhere and took a hiatus. When we picked it back up again, we became engaged with the relationship between Zoë and Rusty and their acting adventures. I also enjoyed the passages where the shepherd demonstrates how much he loves and cares for his sheep. As time went by, I think Simon remained more engaged than I did. However, I did enjoy some of the prose.
Favorite quotes:
"I'll lose my grant! You have no idea how cutthroat the library world can be!" So true!
"History only licenses us to drive in the past. The road ahead is always full of blind curves."
"If this is not Biblical, I shall always believe it should be - that all of us need someone who loves us enough to forgive us despite the history."
October 21, 2018
My time-scarred father was no movie star, nor was he a Dust Bowl Okie, but his face was a badge of the decade as surely as if printed on a coin.
Ivan Doig has a way of telling a story that charms me right down to my toes! The Bartender’s Tale is yet another example of a slowly meandering story without a lot of action, and yet it made for such delightful stretches of reading time; it was the perfect escape from the hectic pace of life as it has been for the last two weeks. How does he always do this?
Twelve year old Russ Harry is our amiable young narrator, regaling us with the story of life with his Pop, who is the owner and bartender of the Medicine Lodge (aka “the joint”) in Gros Ventre, MT. It’s the summer of 1960, which for Russ means time spent at the joint with his father, boyhood freedom, a newfound best friend, and discoveries about a past that his father has as of yet managed to conceal. All these things combine to set the stage for one memorable summer, and many exceptional characters.
I always feel sad to turn the final page of a book like this where I’ve spent time with characters that feel like family. The family represented in these pages is formed partly by blood, but also by friendships. It’s all about what you make of the situation you’re in and who you’re in it with.
Where I found it in me, I don’t know, but I sounded more like Pop than he himself sometimes did: “You got to play the hand you been dealt. That’s rule number one.”
Ivan Doig has a way of telling a story that charms me right down to my toes! The Bartender’s Tale is yet another example of a slowly meandering story without a lot of action, and yet it made for such delightful stretches of reading time; it was the perfect escape from the hectic pace of life as it has been for the last two weeks. How does he always do this?
Twelve year old Russ Harry is our amiable young narrator, regaling us with the story of life with his Pop, who is the owner and bartender of the Medicine Lodge (aka “the joint”) in Gros Ventre, MT. It’s the summer of 1960, which for Russ means time spent at the joint with his father, boyhood freedom, a newfound best friend, and discoveries about a past that his father has as of yet managed to conceal. All these things combine to set the stage for one memorable summer, and many exceptional characters.
I always feel sad to turn the final page of a book like this where I’ve spent time with characters that feel like family. The family represented in these pages is formed partly by blood, but also by friendships. It’s all about what you make of the situation you’re in and who you’re in it with.
Where I found it in me, I don’t know, but I sounded more like Pop than he himself sometimes did: “You got to play the hand you been dealt. That’s rule number one.”
December 16, 2012
IMO It took 250 pages for this book to finally get its footing. Considering there's only 385 pages in this book, that just doesn't cut it. The story itself had potential - a bartender and his son living in Montana in early 1960, a year that would change many things for them. The son, Rusty, is likeable enough and Doig does a great job capturing the speech and essense of a 12 year old during this time period. His father Tom is smart but set in his ways until he is inevitably pushed to look at things in a new way, a very fitting start to what would be a decade of huge changes. What I really can't stand is the slow slow pace of this book. Characters are introduced slowly & the impact takes a long time to show. I don't mind the fact that the author decided to focus on one year but I just couldn't stand the way the year moved by like molasses. By the time the end rolled around, I felt like I already knew what was going to happen. The author dwelled so long in his characters that their actions became predictable. To me, that's just uninspired storytelling.
I give this two stars because its readable and the last 1/4 of the book is pretty good however I wouldn't recommend this to others.
I give this two stars because its readable and the last 1/4 of the book is pretty good however I wouldn't recommend this to others.
July 20, 2012
I loved the Western setting. Montana seems to be a place that has somehow managed to retain a lot of the 1880’s and 1890’s feel. Doig conveys this in his 1955 through 1960’s time frame. The story is about a young boy who’s been abandoned by his mother as an infant and deposited with his paternal aunt in Arizona until he turns six. That’s when his pop, the erstwhile bartender of this story, swoops down and takes him home to MT. They both have some adjusting to do but after some initial discomfort the two get on well, in fact more than well. They’re two bachelors making a life for themselves, though a somewhat unconventional one. There don’t seem to be many straight forward relationships in inaptly named town, Gros Venture. It’s a sheep herding area and some of the herders are Harry, the bartender’s best customers. They’re also some of the more colorful ones. There are other regulars like the local reporter and the town’s multiple divorcee who lives off all the money she’s made divorcing well.
As with most of us young Rusty has experiences that mold and change him. He lives in fear that his dad will bring home a wife, a ‘mother’ for him and he’ll be shunted to the background again as he was for his first six years when he only saw his dad for short periods. Then a wonderful new friend moves into town. Zoe is a girl his own age who becomes his best friend. The two spend an idyllic summer together but just below the surface there are seismic changes afoot.
I almost hesitate to write this but this is a sweet, almost old fashioned tale. It’s about human relationships, human connections, and goodness. It’s about how a person’s personality is shaped and it’s about a boy loving his dad and caring deeply for a few other important people in his life. It’s also about growing a conscious and learning one’s own values, deciding what is right and what is wrong and choosing a future beyond a career. It’s about choosing to have character. It doesn’t hurt that Doig’s a wonderful wordsmith.
As with most of us young Rusty has experiences that mold and change him. He lives in fear that his dad will bring home a wife, a ‘mother’ for him and he’ll be shunted to the background again as he was for his first six years when he only saw his dad for short periods. Then a wonderful new friend moves into town. Zoe is a girl his own age who becomes his best friend. The two spend an idyllic summer together but just below the surface there are seismic changes afoot.
I almost hesitate to write this but this is a sweet, almost old fashioned tale. It’s about human relationships, human connections, and goodness. It’s about how a person’s personality is shaped and it’s about a boy loving his dad and caring deeply for a few other important people in his life. It’s also about growing a conscious and learning one’s own values, deciding what is right and what is wrong and choosing a future beyond a career. It’s about choosing to have character. It doesn’t hurt that Doig’s a wonderful wordsmith.
April 27, 2019
This is a mid-20th century coming of age story set in a small Montana town. The story focuses on the summer of 1960, when the narrator is 12 years of age. I have heard it said that there are only 2 stories, a stranger comes to town and a person goes on a journey. This is the former with several strangers entering the boy’s life through this summer. The author creates a sense of intimacy with the reader. This could have been a guy sharing his story over a beer at the corner bar. Unfortunately, as with most real life people who share their meandering stories with me, half way through I was growing impatient for the narrator to get to the point. This may say more about my lack of attention or interest in the lives of others than it says about the writing of this author. This started as a solid 4 star read for me, but was sliding to 3 stars as my eagerness for the final page grew. 3.5 stars
October 29, 2022
I loved this book and it was a surprise and a true delight. The end gave me chills. Rusty, son of a Montana saloonkeeper, tells us about 1960, the year he turned 12. From his dad he learns about playing the hand you’re dealt. Along the way we meet and get to know some great characters, including Tom Hart, Rusty’s father, the oral historian Delano, the “hospital sheep herder” Canada Dan, and great females Zoe, Proxy and Francine. A pleasure and a treasure.
June 15, 2015
I love to listen to audiobooks on long road trips. It is hard to find one that my husband will tolerate and that is appropriate for my teenage daughter. The audiobook version of The Bartenders Tale is a great choice for my family.
We live in the west and most of our trips are to other western states. The bulk of this story is set in small town Montana. The story begins when a father, Tom Harry, travels to Phoenix to claim his young son, Rusty (Russell) and takes him home. Tom is the best bartender in Montana, in part because of his ability to listen and to draw people out. He raises his son in bachelor bliss until they encounter Proxy, a sexy bottle blond with a steamy past and her daughter Francine. Francine has a sharp tongue and a past of her own.
This description sounds more "R-rated" than this book really is. The Bartender's Tale is good story telling about ways of life that are disappearing. Ivan Doig writes about the small town diners, fishing derbies, pawn shops, beer tours, and Triple A baseball. This is also an ode to fatherhood. It's hard to find books about compelling single fathers. Tom Harry may not be the perfect man, but in this story he was the perfect father. Almost everyone loves him and he brings out the best most people that he meets.
While this may seem to be a celebration in all things stereotypically male, I liked the relationships, storytelling, and setting. Women as well as men will enjoy this one.
We live in the west and most of our trips are to other western states. The bulk of this story is set in small town Montana. The story begins when a father, Tom Harry, travels to Phoenix to claim his young son, Rusty (Russell) and takes him home. Tom is the best bartender in Montana, in part because of his ability to listen and to draw people out. He raises his son in bachelor bliss until they encounter Proxy, a sexy bottle blond with a steamy past and her daughter Francine. Francine has a sharp tongue and a past of her own.
This description sounds more "R-rated" than this book really is. The Bartender's Tale is good story telling about ways of life that are disappearing. Ivan Doig writes about the small town diners, fishing derbies, pawn shops, beer tours, and Triple A baseball. This is also an ode to fatherhood. It's hard to find books about compelling single fathers. Tom Harry may not be the perfect man, but in this story he was the perfect father. Almost everyone loves him and he brings out the best most people that he meets.
While this may seem to be a celebration in all things stereotypically male, I liked the relationships, storytelling, and setting. Women as well as men will enjoy this one.
February 25, 2022
Feb 20, 215pm ~~ Review asap.
Feb 24, 10pm ~~ I loved this book. Doig brings back a secondary character from the book Bucking The Sun: Tom Harry, the man who ran the Blue Eagle bar while the big dirt dam was being built up at Fort Peck Montana. I had read that book before this one and while it is not absolutely necessary, it is much more fun to be familiar with the people and places that are mentioned as we go along in this book.
But Tom Harry is not the narrator here. The 'I' of our story is his son Russell, known as Rusty. He spent his earliest years with an aunt in Phoenix, after his parents split up. Tom visits every so often, but it is not until Rusty is six years old that Tom takes him back home to Montana and an entirely new life begins.
Tom still owns a bar, the Medicine Lodge in Gros Ventre. He and Rusty settle into a fairly tidy life during the next six years, and when the cafe down the street is sold to new people, Rusty meets a delightful young girl named Zoe who becomes his best friend and partner in all sorts of adventures.
But when Rusty turns twelve, another person from the past shows up. Proxy, who used to be what was known as a taxi dancer in the old Blue Eagle. She has her daughter along and wants her to begin working in Tom's bar. Why? Because the young woman needs to learn a trade and who better to train her how to run a bar then her father?
But Rusty has other things to worry about besides this incredible news. Somehow, by putting two and two together and getting more than four, Rusty becomes convinced that Proxy is his own mother. Could this be true? And if it is, how will he ever find out why she seemed so happy to leave him as a baby?
There is a lot that happens in this book, but the most fun for me was the relationship between Rusty and Zoe, and the way Doig so creatively presented the world through Rusty's eyes. I enjoyed it all and got teary eyed at the end for the pure Just As It Should Be way everything turned out. And I say again, I am so glad I discovered Ivan Doig, and I thank his memory for all the wonderful stories he gave us.
Feb 24, 10pm ~~ I loved this book. Doig brings back a secondary character from the book Bucking The Sun: Tom Harry, the man who ran the Blue Eagle bar while the big dirt dam was being built up at Fort Peck Montana. I had read that book before this one and while it is not absolutely necessary, it is much more fun to be familiar with the people and places that are mentioned as we go along in this book.
But Tom Harry is not the narrator here. The 'I' of our story is his son Russell, known as Rusty. He spent his earliest years with an aunt in Phoenix, after his parents split up. Tom visits every so often, but it is not until Rusty is six years old that Tom takes him back home to Montana and an entirely new life begins.
Tom still owns a bar, the Medicine Lodge in Gros Ventre. He and Rusty settle into a fairly tidy life during the next six years, and when the cafe down the street is sold to new people, Rusty meets a delightful young girl named Zoe who becomes his best friend and partner in all sorts of adventures.
But when Rusty turns twelve, another person from the past shows up. Proxy, who used to be what was known as a taxi dancer in the old Blue Eagle. She has her daughter along and wants her to begin working in Tom's bar. Why? Because the young woman needs to learn a trade and who better to train her how to run a bar then her father?
But Rusty has other things to worry about besides this incredible news. Somehow, by putting two and two together and getting more than four, Rusty becomes convinced that Proxy is his own mother. Could this be true? And if it is, how will he ever find out why she seemed so happy to leave him as a baby?
There is a lot that happens in this book, but the most fun for me was the relationship between Rusty and Zoe, and the way Doig so creatively presented the world through Rusty's eyes. I enjoyed it all and got teary eyed at the end for the pure Just As It Should Be way everything turned out. And I say again, I am so glad I discovered Ivan Doig, and I thank his memory for all the wonderful stories he gave us.
October 9, 2012
I really like Ivan Doig's writing which I think of as both sophisticated and down to earth, if that's possible. For example, in describing the vocabulary of a friendship central to The Bartender's Tale, Doig writes, "Inevitably added to [what we heard in the bar] was every particle of radio serial and comic strip and movie dialogue that was silly enough to remember, piled up and waiting in two active twelve-year-old brains like ingredients filling a flour sifter. All it took for that powder of imagination to sieve through in good measure was for one or the other of us to turn the crank." Good stuff! The Bartender's Tale is the story of twelve-year-old Rusty and his bachelor saloon bartender father Tom and what happens to them in the summer of 1960 when a new girl Rusty's age, a woman from Tom's past and her daughter, and a man recording voices from a dam built in a nearby town all arrive in their small Montana town and upends their world a bit. I thought the novel built slowly before sweeping the reader through the ending in a terrific gush. I don't mean any of that as a criticism. This is a good story that was great fun to read.
April 12, 2021
Forse poteva essere qualche pagina più corto, ma molto piacevole e divertente anche questo. Ogni personaggio ben caratterizzato, con la sua voce e il suo modo peculiare di parlare (non banale da tradurre, credo) e i ragazzini protagonisti sono resi con vivacità e molto credibili, difficile non affezionarsi.
Peccato che in italiano siano stati tradotti solo qs due romanzi, suggerirei alla casa editrice Nutrimenti di metter mano anche a qualcuna delle altre numerose opere di Doig.
Peccato che in italiano siano stati tradotti solo qs due romanzi, suggerirei alla casa editrice Nutrimenti di metter mano anche a qualcuna delle altre numerose opere di Doig.
July 11, 2020
Dentro c’è una combinazione che trovo quasi irresistibile: l’America rurale, lo sguardo del ragazzino che si fa narratore, un po’ di storia famigliare, la formazione e la crescita, il raccontarsi e il raccontare, senza soluzione di continuità, con una struttura fluida e per me magnetica, tanto da non avvertirne la poderosa lunghezza come eccessiva.
January 5, 2020
Enjoyed the story, even if it was a little slow. Really don't read western setting, glad it intregrated history to add to the intrest. Nice writing to wrap the plot ending.
March 25, 2018
Okay, I'm going to be gentle here because I think Doig was a wonderful storyteller (he sadly passed away from cancer a few years ago) and I enjoyed both "Dancing at the Rascal Fair" and "English Creek" several years ago. However, Doig's novel, "Whistling Season" I did not care for, and this experience felt more like that one.
So what happened? I noticed when I first began reading it didn't feel right. Words like wholesome, quaint, homespun, nerdy, Andy Griffith's Mayberry, came to mind. I thought, oh, wait, I just came off reading Updike who was so edgy and naughty you felt like you might need a shower or a trip to church. But, no, that wasn't it.
This dorky vibe ran throughout the whole book. Another problem - weak characterization. The son, father, Francine and Del characters all sounded the same. Lastly, as I noticed in Whistling Season, the characters never faced any serious challenges. Nothing bad/exciting/climactic happened to anyone. (well, except for the last 20 pages, but even that was treated mildly and quickly resolved). Which made it, in one word, b-o-r-i-n-g.
I like to read some Goodreads reviews after I've read a story. One reader said, "I so loved Dancing at the Rascal Fair, but everything else I've read by Doig seems childish and schmaltzy." Yes, yes, reviewer -"schmaltzy" about sums it up.
This book is making me question how and why I loved Rascal Fair so much? Doig wrote Rascal Fair much earlier in his career. Was he losing his edge in later writings? Rascal Fair takes place in the late 1800s. Did that old-time setting work better with Doig's style?
In the end, I would still say there are readers for this novel. I'm not being sarcastic here - it would be a great gift for a grandparent, young adults or folks that like the Hallmark channel. For me, I'll sadly have to think twice before picking up another Doig book.
So what happened? I noticed when I first began reading it didn't feel right. Words like wholesome, quaint, homespun, nerdy, Andy Griffith's Mayberry, came to mind. I thought, oh, wait, I just came off reading Updike who was so edgy and naughty you felt like you might need a shower or a trip to church. But, no, that wasn't it.
This dorky vibe ran throughout the whole book. Another problem - weak characterization. The son, father, Francine and Del characters all sounded the same. Lastly, as I noticed in Whistling Season, the characters never faced any serious challenges. Nothing bad/exciting/climactic happened to anyone. (well, except for the last 20 pages, but even that was treated mildly and quickly resolved). Which made it, in one word, b-o-r-i-n-g.
I like to read some Goodreads reviews after I've read a story. One reader said, "I so loved Dancing at the Rascal Fair, but everything else I've read by Doig seems childish and schmaltzy." Yes, yes, reviewer -"schmaltzy" about sums it up.
This book is making me question how and why I loved Rascal Fair so much? Doig wrote Rascal Fair much earlier in his career. Was he losing his edge in later writings? Rascal Fair takes place in the late 1800s. Did that old-time setting work better with Doig's style?
In the end, I would still say there are readers for this novel. I'm not being sarcastic here - it would be a great gift for a grandparent, young adults or folks that like the Hallmark channel. For me, I'll sadly have to think twice before picking up another Doig book.
July 15, 2018
Told through the eyes of Russell, a boy recently turned 12, we're drawn into the experiences he has that year. Being raised by his Dad, the owner/bartender of Medicine Lodge saloon in a small town in MT decades ago, Doig's storytelling style is similar to Richard Russo or Hemingway, lighthearted, heart rendering and joyful in all respects. Not having read his work previously, he's a master at his craft using words as a paintbrush, the pages canvas. This is one of those stories that's simply impossible NOT to like regardless of age, sex or ideology. It reminds us our humanity is what's important in life and that alone makes it unique. HIGHLY recommended.
February 20, 2024
The Bartender's Tale is a sweet coming of age historical fiction story that takes place in 1960. Rusty and his father live a bachelor's life. This lifestyle is threatened to be upended when a woman from the past shows up with a girl she claims is the daughter of Rusty's father.
I enjoyed the book and I plan on starting the series from the beginning. It can be read as a standalone book as well. The series are different snapshots of the same area throughout different points of history.
I'm giving The Bartender's Tale 4 heartwarming stars.
I enjoyed the book and I plan on starting the series from the beginning. It can be read as a standalone book as well. The series are different snapshots of the same area throughout different points of history.
I'm giving The Bartender's Tale 4 heartwarming stars.
October 8, 2019
“Prima o poi, tutti hanno una storia da raccontare, e lo straccio con cui papà sfregava instancabile il bancone davanti al cliente fino a farlo risplendere, pareva voler lasciare quel tratto di legno sgombro proprio per quell’opportunità”.
Russell Rusty, ne Il racconto del barista di Ivan Doig, racconta così il “setting” allestito dal padre Tom Harry che consente ai clienti del suo bar, il Medicine Lodge, di raccontare le proprie storie. E proprio la memoria, i ricordi, l’accoglienza e l’ascolto, che si intrecciano con la costruzione della storia orale, sono tra gli ingredienti principali del romanzo, anche se non gli unici.
Il Medicine Lodge e Tom sono un’istituzione riconosciuta anche fuori dal paese e Rusty passa gran parte del suo tempo nel retrobottega del locale, con la sua amica Zoe, ad ascoltare e assimilare queste storie filtrate attraverso il condotto di areazione. Di Rusty, cresciuto senza madre, se ne occupa in modo definitivo Tom Harry a partire dai sei anni, non senza zone d’ombra che conservano aloni di mistero sino al termine del romanzo.
La storia principale si svolge nel 1960, nel periodo della competizione elettorale tra Kennedy e Nixon, ed è ambientata nel piccolo centro di Gros Ventre, nei pressi del lago creato da una diga sul Missouri in Montana, al confine con il Canada; le radici, però, affondano nel New Deal degli anni ’30 quando l’amministrazione di Franklin Delano Roosvelt allestì il mastodontico sistema di opere pubbliche e di protezione sociale per combattere gli effetti della Grande Depressione. Due periodi storici accomunati dalla rinascita della speranza e da grandi cambiamenti. A raccordare questi due periodi, e per strutturare i ricordi, interviene la figura di Del (Delano) Robertson, studente universitario che ha ricevuto una sovvenzione dalla Biblioteca del Congresso per registrare le voci e le testimonianze sul gergo, sulle varianti lessicali, sul modo di vivere, sui lavori dei rappresentanti di un mondo che sta scomparendo, sulla scia di quanto fatto per decenni da John e Alan Lomax.
Il libro è corposo, poco meno di 500 pagine, ma c’è una bella scrittura, molto scorrevole e con molti colpi di scena, mantiene la tensione narrativa e la piacevolezza.
(Una parte non secondaria del romanzo riguarda la raccolta delle voci sul campo da parte dello studente, che utilizza registratore e microfono e rielabora le bobine registrate, sovvenzionato dalla Biblioteca del Congresso. Si tratta di un progetto realmente realizzato, iniziato da John Lomax e proseguito dal figlio Alan, grazie al quale sono state raccolte decine di migliaia di registrazioni soprattutto di musica folk, o blues (anche Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, tra gli altri) e altri documenti e manoscritti, americani ma anche di altri paesi (tra cui l’Italia negli anni ’50) ora conservati nell’archivio della biblioteca del Congresso. Lomax è anche il titolo di una graphic novel del 2012 a lui dedicata e firmata da Duchazeau (edizioni Coconino Press). Ascoltate anche, per curiosità, Universalist, un disco interessante del chitarrista israeliano Yonatan Gat, che ha attinto dall’archivio Lomax una registrazione effettuata sul campo a Genova, relativa alla tecnica del “trallallero”.
Per chi volesse approfondire consiglio il sito http://culturalequity.org/alan-lomax/... )
Russell Rusty, ne Il racconto del barista di Ivan Doig, racconta così il “setting” allestito dal padre Tom Harry che consente ai clienti del suo bar, il Medicine Lodge, di raccontare le proprie storie. E proprio la memoria, i ricordi, l’accoglienza e l’ascolto, che si intrecciano con la costruzione della storia orale, sono tra gli ingredienti principali del romanzo, anche se non gli unici.
Il Medicine Lodge e Tom sono un’istituzione riconosciuta anche fuori dal paese e Rusty passa gran parte del suo tempo nel retrobottega del locale, con la sua amica Zoe, ad ascoltare e assimilare queste storie filtrate attraverso il condotto di areazione. Di Rusty, cresciuto senza madre, se ne occupa in modo definitivo Tom Harry a partire dai sei anni, non senza zone d’ombra che conservano aloni di mistero sino al termine del romanzo.
La storia principale si svolge nel 1960, nel periodo della competizione elettorale tra Kennedy e Nixon, ed è ambientata nel piccolo centro di Gros Ventre, nei pressi del lago creato da una diga sul Missouri in Montana, al confine con il Canada; le radici, però, affondano nel New Deal degli anni ’30 quando l’amministrazione di Franklin Delano Roosvelt allestì il mastodontico sistema di opere pubbliche e di protezione sociale per combattere gli effetti della Grande Depressione. Due periodi storici accomunati dalla rinascita della speranza e da grandi cambiamenti. A raccordare questi due periodi, e per strutturare i ricordi, interviene la figura di Del (Delano) Robertson, studente universitario che ha ricevuto una sovvenzione dalla Biblioteca del Congresso per registrare le voci e le testimonianze sul gergo, sulle varianti lessicali, sul modo di vivere, sui lavori dei rappresentanti di un mondo che sta scomparendo, sulla scia di quanto fatto per decenni da John e Alan Lomax.
Il libro è corposo, poco meno di 500 pagine, ma c’è una bella scrittura, molto scorrevole e con molti colpi di scena, mantiene la tensione narrativa e la piacevolezza.
(Una parte non secondaria del romanzo riguarda la raccolta delle voci sul campo da parte dello studente, che utilizza registratore e microfono e rielabora le bobine registrate, sovvenzionato dalla Biblioteca del Congresso. Si tratta di un progetto realmente realizzato, iniziato da John Lomax e proseguito dal figlio Alan, grazie al quale sono state raccolte decine di migliaia di registrazioni soprattutto di musica folk, o blues (anche Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, tra gli altri) e altri documenti e manoscritti, americani ma anche di altri paesi (tra cui l’Italia negli anni ’50) ora conservati nell’archivio della biblioteca del Congresso. Lomax è anche il titolo di una graphic novel del 2012 a lui dedicata e firmata da Duchazeau (edizioni Coconino Press). Ascoltate anche, per curiosità, Universalist, un disco interessante del chitarrista israeliano Yonatan Gat, che ha attinto dall’archivio Lomax una registrazione effettuata sul campo a Genova, relativa alla tecnica del “trallallero”.
Per chi volesse approfondire consiglio il sito http://culturalequity.org/alan-lomax/... )
March 25, 2018
Ivan Doig has written another successful novel. I thought it was great from start to finish. "The Bartender's Tale" is set in the small Montana town of Gros Ventre (gro van) in 1960. It is told in the voice of 12-year-old Russell (Rusty) Harry, the son of the owner/bartender of the Medicine Lodge, Tom Harry. Tom came to Gros Ventre after runnning a similar establishment at Fort Peck, MT, while the huge earthen damn on the Missouri River was being built. Rusty is a perfect voice for the story since at twelve he is old enough to see what is going on, but young enough to give events a fresh twist as he tries to figure out the whys and wherefores. The book is filled with wonderful scenic detail as well as being peopled with memorable characters such as sheepherder, Canada Dan; Rusty's friend, Zoe; and Tom's old flame, Proxy.
Rusty loves his surrounds - an enormous, multi-level tavern with a fabulous back room full of treasures his father, Tom, has accumulated over the years from patrons who had nothing else with which to settle their bar bill. Behind the tavern is a rambling, huge old house that the father and son sleep in but don't spend a whole lot of other time.
He's learned that there's nowhere else he wants to live, and that nobody else's father could be half as much fun as Tom. He is given the task of keeping the barroom clean, as long as he's not in the bar during open hours. He's left with ample time to examine the contents of the backroom and even to listen in to the numerous stories that get told in the bar through a cleverly-disguised air vent in the wall that connects his father's 'office' with the barroom. This air vent is the source of countless hours of entertainment, which he eventually shares with a new friend who's moved to town - a girl his own age, named Zoe, whose parents own the local cafe. The two of them become inseparable during a pivotal summer, when the lives of Tom and Rusty are thrown into disarray by the impromptu arrival of two people from Tom's past.
This is classic Ivan Doig work, engrossing, at times humorous, and painting clearly visual pictures of the sort of people who inhabit backwater towns - from the sheepherders (this is sheepraising territory) to the local shopkeepers, the troublemakers and the wealthy and the artistic. Newcomers are all interesting and totally fresh air; the foibles of old regulars are tolerated with the sort of affection small-town people keep for their long-term inhabitants.
So far I haven't met a book by this author that I don't like. "The Bartender's Tale" is one of his best.
Rusty loves his surrounds - an enormous, multi-level tavern with a fabulous back room full of treasures his father, Tom, has accumulated over the years from patrons who had nothing else with which to settle their bar bill. Behind the tavern is a rambling, huge old house that the father and son sleep in but don't spend a whole lot of other time.
He's learned that there's nowhere else he wants to live, and that nobody else's father could be half as much fun as Tom. He is given the task of keeping the barroom clean, as long as he's not in the bar during open hours. He's left with ample time to examine the contents of the backroom and even to listen in to the numerous stories that get told in the bar through a cleverly-disguised air vent in the wall that connects his father's 'office' with the barroom. This air vent is the source of countless hours of entertainment, which he eventually shares with a new friend who's moved to town - a girl his own age, named Zoe, whose parents own the local cafe. The two of them become inseparable during a pivotal summer, when the lives of Tom and Rusty are thrown into disarray by the impromptu arrival of two people from Tom's past.
This is classic Ivan Doig work, engrossing, at times humorous, and painting clearly visual pictures of the sort of people who inhabit backwater towns - from the sheepherders (this is sheepraising territory) to the local shopkeepers, the troublemakers and the wealthy and the artistic. Newcomers are all interesting and totally fresh air; the foibles of old regulars are tolerated with the sort of affection small-town people keep for their long-term inhabitants.
So far I haven't met a book by this author that I don't like. "The Bartender's Tale" is one of his best.
March 22, 2013
A classic coming-of-age story set in the small Montana town of Gros Ventre. Rusty, son of Tom Harry, owner and bartender of the local watering hole turns twelve in 1960 and life begins to change around The Medicine Lodge.
Tom, sporting a silver streak in his black pompadour, manages to eek out a living with his bar, which has been around since the beginning of time, but life is simpler and so is their bank account. Rusty, who spent the first years of his life with his aunt and obnoxious cousins, is more than happy for the household to consist of just him and his Dad. That is until a new family move to town and their daughter is just his age.
Ivan Doig manages to pack a large amount into this story of growing up in northern Montana in the sixties, but it's a charming look into a place and time and way of life that is likely not as simple as it used to be.
Tom, sporting a silver streak in his black pompadour, manages to eek out a living with his bar, which has been around since the beginning of time, but life is simpler and so is their bank account. Rusty, who spent the first years of his life with his aunt and obnoxious cousins, is more than happy for the household to consist of just him and his Dad. That is until a new family move to town and their daughter is just his age.
Ivan Doig manages to pack a large amount into this story of growing up in northern Montana in the sixties, but it's a charming look into a place and time and way of life that is likely not as simple as it used to be.
September 13, 2020
Bartender Tom Harry goes to Arizona to get his six year old son Rusty, who has lived with his aunt there since he was a toddler. The two of them return to Tom's small Montana town where his house sits across the alley behind the bar. The single dad and son make their relationship, and the story rapidly covers six years.
In 1960, Rusty is twelve and the world changes dramatically, the weather, a new friend, a young man from Washington, and more. This pivotal year forms the center of the tale.
Author Doig creates two guys to love in Tom and Rusty and several females loom large as that year goes on. The tale is a well-told yarn, a most enjoyable departure from real life. The characters are endearing, the locals' language quirky and fun, the setting a gentle escape. There are numerous surprises as Rusty's life goes along. As Tom says, “Delano seemed as happy as if he had good sense.” This was my second serving of Doig, and I will surely be back.
In 1960, Rusty is twelve and the world changes dramatically, the weather, a new friend, a young man from Washington, and more. This pivotal year forms the center of the tale.
Author Doig creates two guys to love in Tom and Rusty and several females loom large as that year goes on. The tale is a well-told yarn, a most enjoyable departure from real life. The characters are endearing, the locals' language quirky and fun, the setting a gentle escape. There are numerous surprises as Rusty's life goes along. As Tom says, “Delano seemed as happy as if he had good sense.” This was my second serving of Doig, and I will surely be back.
January 15, 2015
From the book jacket: Tom Harry has a venerable bar called the Medicine Lodge, the chief watering hole and last refuge of the town of Gros Ventre, in northern Montana. Tom also has a son named Rusty, whose mother deserted them both years ago. The pair make an odd kind of family, with the bar their true home, but they manage just fine. Until the summer of 1960, that is, when Rusty turns twelve. Change arrives with gale force, in the person of Proxy, a taxi dancer Tom knew back when, and her beatnik daughter, Francine.
My reactions:
Ivan Doig has a way of exploring the everyday events of a person’s life and making them seem epic in scope. In this marvelous novel he gives us a precocious, if worried, twelve-year-old narrator who hero worships his father. Rusty is a great observer and while his imagination can get ahead of the facts, he can also be pretty astute when judging character. I loved reading about these two and the family unit they create, as well as the many townsfolk who populate Gros Ventre, the surrounding area and especially the Medicine Lodge. As Rusty relates the happenings of the summer of 1960, I came to love his father just about as much as Rusty did. Despite having a young narrator who clearly worships his father, Doig manages to give us a balanced view of Tom Harry – father, bartender, confessor, business owner, a man with flaws and who is trying mightily to make the best of the deck he’s been dealt.
The location is practically a character unto itself, and Doig does a marvelous job of painting the picture for us:
The highly polished surface of the classic bar, as dark as wood can get. In back of the bar the colossal oak breakfront, as ornate as it was high and long, displaying all known brands of liquor. A lofty pressed-tin ceiling the color of risen cream. Walls of restful deep green. Original plank-wide floorboards as substantial as a ship’s decking.
I had never been in a museum, but the colossal back room of the Medicine Lodge immediately fixed that. The two-story space was like some enormous attic that had settled to the ground floor under the weight of its treasures.
The outside hadn’t tasted paint for a good many years, while the interior was well kept but as old-fashioned as the time it was built, with a dreary parlor and a milkmaid room off the kitchen and those high ceilings of the Victorian era that defied rationale and heating system alike.
The Rocky Mountains practically came down from the roof of the continent to meet us. The highest parts lived up to their name in solid rock, bluish-gray cliffs like the mightiest castle walls imaginable, with timber thick and dark beneath the morning sky boundless beyond.
And the way he describes the people!
My father was a figure to behold, by any standard. The long, big-shouldered body, as if the whole world was meant to look up to him the way I did. The skunk streak in his black hair; expressive, thick eyebrows … But it was the lines in his face that told the most about him. … The man was etched with the Thirties, with that deeply creased survivor’s look so many times photographed as the image of the Depression generation.
Zoe possessed deep brown eyes that were hard to look away from, and she had an olive-skinned complexion that no doubt suntanned nice as toast. … She was so skinny – call it thin, to be polite – that she reminded me of those famished waifs in news photos of DP refugee camps.
The traveling secretary was a chubby young man with the hearty attitude that so often substitutes for genuine ability; if I didn’t miss my guess, he was the son or nephew of someone in the team’s management.
The woman was, according to the saying I had never fully appreciated until then, an eyeful. In lavender slacks that had no slack between the fabric and her and a creamy blouse also snugly filled, the vision of womanhood providing us that slinky smile was not what is standardly thought of as beautiful, yet here were three males of various ages who could not stop staring at her.
This is frequently listed as #10 in the Two Medicine Country series. But calling this a series is somewhat of a misnomer. Yes, the books all take place in Two Medicine Country and there are some characters who appear in more than one book, but these are mostly stand-alone novels. THIS book definitely stands alone.
My reactions:
Ivan Doig has a way of exploring the everyday events of a person’s life and making them seem epic in scope. In this marvelous novel he gives us a precocious, if worried, twelve-year-old narrator who hero worships his father. Rusty is a great observer and while his imagination can get ahead of the facts, he can also be pretty astute when judging character. I loved reading about these two and the family unit they create, as well as the many townsfolk who populate Gros Ventre, the surrounding area and especially the Medicine Lodge. As Rusty relates the happenings of the summer of 1960, I came to love his father just about as much as Rusty did. Despite having a young narrator who clearly worships his father, Doig manages to give us a balanced view of Tom Harry – father, bartender, confessor, business owner, a man with flaws and who is trying mightily to make the best of the deck he’s been dealt.
The location is practically a character unto itself, and Doig does a marvelous job of painting the picture for us:
The highly polished surface of the classic bar, as dark as wood can get. In back of the bar the colossal oak breakfront, as ornate as it was high and long, displaying all known brands of liquor. A lofty pressed-tin ceiling the color of risen cream. Walls of restful deep green. Original plank-wide floorboards as substantial as a ship’s decking.
I had never been in a museum, but the colossal back room of the Medicine Lodge immediately fixed that. The two-story space was like some enormous attic that had settled to the ground floor under the weight of its treasures.
The outside hadn’t tasted paint for a good many years, while the interior was well kept but as old-fashioned as the time it was built, with a dreary parlor and a milkmaid room off the kitchen and those high ceilings of the Victorian era that defied rationale and heating system alike.
The Rocky Mountains practically came down from the roof of the continent to meet us. The highest parts lived up to their name in solid rock, bluish-gray cliffs like the mightiest castle walls imaginable, with timber thick and dark beneath the morning sky boundless beyond.
And the way he describes the people!
My father was a figure to behold, by any standard. The long, big-shouldered body, as if the whole world was meant to look up to him the way I did. The skunk streak in his black hair; expressive, thick eyebrows … But it was the lines in his face that told the most about him. … The man was etched with the Thirties, with that deeply creased survivor’s look so many times photographed as the image of the Depression generation.
Zoe possessed deep brown eyes that were hard to look away from, and she had an olive-skinned complexion that no doubt suntanned nice as toast. … She was so skinny – call it thin, to be polite – that she reminded me of those famished waifs in news photos of DP refugee camps.
The traveling secretary was a chubby young man with the hearty attitude that so often substitutes for genuine ability; if I didn’t miss my guess, he was the son or nephew of someone in the team’s management.
The woman was, according to the saying I had never fully appreciated until then, an eyeful. In lavender slacks that had no slack between the fabric and her and a creamy blouse also snugly filled, the vision of womanhood providing us that slinky smile was not what is standardly thought of as beautiful, yet here were three males of various ages who could not stop staring at her.
This is frequently listed as #10 in the Two Medicine Country series. But calling this a series is somewhat of a misnomer. Yes, the books all take place in Two Medicine Country and there are some characters who appear in more than one book, but these are mostly stand-alone novels. THIS book definitely stands alone.
September 8, 2012
I loved "The Whistling Season" by this author and was anxious to read this new book. Tom Harry, bartender at Gros Ventre, a blink and you miss it kind of town, retreives his son, Rusty, age 6 from his sister's house in Arizona, who has been raising Rusty since birth. Tom is a likable character and the Medicine Lodge is a popular bar. Rusty is happy to leave his aunt's house and his irritating nephews who constantly pick on him. Rusty loves the bar where Tom spends most of his time and loves the back room where he visits when Tom works late nights. Rusty befriends Zoe, also Rusty's age, and the new girl in town the summer of 1960. I enjoyed seeing things unfold through Rusty's eyes and also liked the start of the book. But the book begins to drag after the first 100 pages or so and then picks up again at the end and I'm talking about the last 20 pages. So it was a slow read even though the book had a great start and colorful characters.
August 21, 2016
This was a reread for me. It is a great book written by my cousin Ivan Doig.
I recommend it to all.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond
I recommend it to all.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond
July 17, 2021
I do love a good story told from the perspective of a child. A Sixty-two-year-old looks back on an amazing year of his childhood in which many life-changing occurrences occurred and several people entered his life, some to never leave. Some to leave and come back. Some to leave and stay in touch, some to leave and never return. At the end, we learn what became of the most beloved characters and why he is telling this tale at this time. I would have loved to know more, though, before I parted ways with the characters.
This is a story that made me smile, wonder, and produced a lump in my from both anxiety and emotion. It's a mostly gentle tale of a boy being raised by his father, the owner and bartender of an iconic saloon in Montana. I loved that we are given several hints that everything was going to be all right in the end, even though bad things were sure to happen. It allowed me to enjoy the scene and the people of this endearing slice of Americana. I listened to it and enjoyed the narrator reading the voices and vernacular of days gone by. **4 1/2 stars**
https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....
This is a story that made me smile, wonder, and produced a lump in my from both anxiety and emotion. It's a mostly gentle tale of a boy being raised by his father, the owner and bartender of an iconic saloon in Montana. I loved that we are given several hints that everything was going to be all right in the end, even though bad things were sure to happen. It allowed me to enjoy the scene and the people of this endearing slice of Americana. I listened to it and enjoyed the narrator reading the voices and vernacular of days gone by. **4 1/2 stars**
https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....
November 16, 2024
The book starts off very slow and continues that way throughout the book. The slowness does build to a sweet story of a summer shared by two twelve year old growing up in Montana one summer in 1960, but it is sorta boring. The author occasionally throws in a little bit of wit with a few interesting observations and pieces of dialog that might be something your grandfather would say as the story slowly, very slowly plows along:
"It takes a good storyteller to turn eyes into ears."
"It's French and it does not need to make sense."
"-- don't let the ladybugs bite."
"All you can count on in life is your fingers and toes."
“People come and go in our lives; that’s as old a story as there is. But some of them the heart cries out to keep forever, and that is a fresh saga every time.”
"Sure gonna to miss you when I'm gone."
"It takes a good storyteller to turn eyes into ears."
"It's French and it does not need to make sense."
"-- don't let the ladybugs bite."
"All you can count on in life is your fingers and toes."
“People come and go in our lives; that’s as old a story as there is. But some of them the heart cries out to keep forever, and that is a fresh saga every time.”
"Sure gonna to miss you when I'm gone."
September 16, 2012
3.5 Able to take the mundane and make it impressive is a talent that Doig has in droves. Montana in the late fifties and early sixtes, a story built around the connection between a father and young son, and a bar which the father owns becomes the setting for this story. IT is about the connections between people, the fears a young motherless boy has and an old fashioned way of life. I enjoyed his writing, though at times I felt the pacing was off, at some points in the story lagged but all in all I enjoyed this very much.
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