The Bartender's Tale

Starred review from June 11, 2012
The summer of 1960 stretches wide in Doig’s highly textured and evocative new novel, which returns to Work Song and The Whistling Season’s Two Medicine County, Mont. After living half his life in Phoenix, Ariz., with his aunt, 12-year-old Russell “Rusty” Harry comes back to the tiny town of Gros Ventre to live with his father, Tom, the owner of a popular saloon. Rusty’s mother has been gone since she and Tom “split the blanket” 12 years ago. Rusty entertains himself in the cavernous back room, which Tom operates like a pawnshop, taking in all manner of miscellany so sheepherders, ranchers, and others can pay for their drinks. When a local cafe comes under new ownership, 12-year-old Zoe Constantine shows up and soon becomes Rusty’s partner in crime in the backroom, listening to the bar through a concealed air vent. It’s a summer of change and new arrivals, as Delano Robertson, from Washington, D.C., comes to Gros Ventre to record the “Missing Voices” of America, followed by the mysterious and sultry Proxy Duff and her 21-year-old daughter, Francine, who both claim a special connection to Tom. Filtering the world through Rusty’s eyes, Doig gives us a poignant saga of a boy becoming a man alongside a town and a bygone way of life inching into the modern era. Agent: Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff & Verrill.

February 1, 2013

An easy-paced memory of Americana, childhood, dreams, and reality set in Montana in the late 1950s is revealed through Doig's excellent writing and David Baker's equally high-quality narration. Through the viewpoint of Rusty from ages seven to 12, the reader is introduced to a variety of exotic characters starting with the boy's father, with whom he has had scant contact up to the beginning of the story. As Rusty's only visible parent, Tom Harry, the owner and bartender of the Medicine Lodge, takes over the care and feeding of his son. Baker's crusty interpretation of Tom contrasts wonderfully with Rusty's childlike though not childish voice. VERDICT As open and simple as the prairie sky, as deep and complicated as the rushing waters of the rivers, this is a book for a multitude of readers. ["Recommended for fans of old-fashioned, big-hearted, feel-good novels," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Riverhead: Penguin hc, LJ 7/12.--Ed.]--J. Sara Paulk, Wythe-Grayson Regional Lib., Independence, VA

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