The Bartender's Tale

De: Ivan Doig

Narrado por: David Aaron Baker

Audie Award Nominee, Fiction, 2013

Time and again, Ivan Doig has proven himself to be a treasure of American letters. Critical darlings and New York Times best sellers, his novels target the heart of the human experience and never miss the mark.

The Bartender' s Tale stars Tom Harry and his 12-year-old son, Rusty, who live alone and run a bar in a small Montana town in the early 1960s. Their lives are upended when Proxy, a woman from Tom's past, and her beatnik daughter, Francine, breeze into town. 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.

©2012 Ivan Doig (P)2012 Recorded Books

wonderful

One of the best listens of the 285 Audible books I have 'read.' Of course Ivan Doig, a writer's writer, is masterful. And what David Aaron Baker does with Doig's beautiful story of remote Montana culture filled with colorful and believable characters is just unbelievable. What a fine actor, managing the voices and dialects and timbre of the story with transcendence. It's a joy to read a serious book that's not too dark in these challenging times.

What a fabulous duo!

This is my second audiobook written by Doig and narrated by Baker. The duo has nailed it both times! With Doig’s talent for character development, you’ll be captivated from the beginning, always wanting more of the story. Baker will awaken your senses and imagination with his raspy voice and spot on storytelling charm of times gone by. I highly recommend this audiobook.

and it was just as captivating and charming as the first. I

Unique ...

Have loved this, and Last Bus to Wisdom by this author. Language of the 50/60s used in these books is so charming and brings me back to my childhood years and the way my older relatives in Colorado spoke and expressed themselves. A charming and enjoyable listen.

Loved...but...

The book and narrator were great except for the voice of Delano. Every time he spoke, I saw Mickey Mouse. :/

loved it!

great look at midcentury western America through the eyes of a 12 year old and his family

Loved it!

What made the experience of listening to The Bartender's Tale the most enjoyable?

After a string of negative books I found this one - a tale with characters I could care about, root for, and even worry about. Good people in tough situations, rising above the many problems they encounter, this is a tale of fatherhood, a coming of age story, and a lesson in history. It's also a lesson in life. You have to play the hand that you've been dealt.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You have to play the hand that you've been dealt.

one of my favorites for now

like a different version of the wonder years. he can tell a great story

Fantastic story!

This story really gave me a special feeling, having myself grown up in a small town in Montana at about the same time, the remeninces were in full. High Definition. The narathon was outstanding.

entertaining and historically interesting

this story both entertained and inspired me to want to visit historic fort peck reservoir

Captured me!

This is the second book that I have read by Ivan Doig, The Whistling Season being the first one. I am now a big fan of this author. He is an amazing story teller and I will seek out his other books. This story was enchanting and well crafted. Character development is excellent and I get to know and love the people he writes about. Wholesome stories are a welcome addition to my life and this author is a winner on that front!