The Bartender's Tale
I've read Ivan Doig's new novel, The Bartender's Tale, and count it the finest work of fiction I've read. The narrator is a 12-year-old boy being raised by his father, who owns a bar in a northern Montana small town called Gros Ventre, which is probably a fictional version of Valier, where Doig went to high school.
The boy, Rusty, acquires an unusual understanding of life, courtesy of his tough and worldly father, Tom Harry, who operates the best watering hole in the whole area. But the boy is also insecure, half-orphaned and wondering what his fate might be if he loses his father in some way, or his father abandons him.
The story unfolds in a powerful and tender way, as the boy acquires a friend, and the father makes mysterious trips to Canada, and relatives begin to elbow their way into the lives of the father and son. Through it all, Doig paints a true and vivid picture of small-town Montana as it was in 1960.
A leitmotif running through the story is a bit of Montana wisdom that goes like this: "You gotta play the hand you've been dealt." You do the best you can with what you've got, because that is what life gave you. It's actually the best approach to living I have ever come across, and has been my own lodestar for many years.
This is the finest, most powerful, most poignant, most richly wrought novel I've had the pleasure to read. If it wins a Pulitzer or National Book Award, I'd not be surprised.
The boy, Rusty, acquires an unusual understanding of life, courtesy of his tough and worldly father, Tom Harry, who operates the best watering hole in the whole area. But the boy is also insecure, half-orphaned and wondering what his fate might be if he loses his father in some way, or his father abandons him.
The story unfolds in a powerful and tender way, as the boy acquires a friend, and the father makes mysterious trips to Canada, and relatives begin to elbow their way into the lives of the father and son. Through it all, Doig paints a true and vivid picture of small-town Montana as it was in 1960.
A leitmotif running through the story is a bit of Montana wisdom that goes like this: "You gotta play the hand you've been dealt." You do the best you can with what you've got, because that is what life gave you. It's actually the best approach to living I have ever come across, and has been my own lodestar for many years.
This is the finest, most powerful, most poignant, most richly wrought novel I've had the pleasure to read. If it wins a Pulitzer or National Book Award, I'd not be surprised.
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