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Steve here. If you've read The Tender Bar already, you know how good it is. If you haven't, then you're in for quite a ride.

The purpose of this forum is to provide an online space where interested parties can spend the next few weeks discussing this fantastic book. To sweeten the experience, do yourself a favor and stop by Bookworks (4022 Rio Grande NW, 344-8139) and pick up tickets to a special event with J.R. Moehringer at Slate Street Cafe on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 6 p.m. Tickets are $5, but if you buy a copy of the book at Bookworks, they're free. (You'll get a 10 percent discount if you mention the Alibi's Online Book club.) It's a chance to mingle with the author and meet some of the folks who will be engaged in this online book club. So stop by, slurp some vino and say hello. You'll have a fine ol' time.

... are kind of wanky. "The Tender Bar?" Heh, heh, uh, heh ... yeah, lame. But books really can't be judged by their covers, or their titles, for that matter. I'm really into this so far. Nice writing. It's a funny and fast read!

... then there's a huge possibility they're going to really muck up their whole story. So how does Moehringer's first line hold up? Is his intro as rockin' as Kafka's to “The Metamorphosis” (“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”)? Or Tolstoy's to Anna Karenina (“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”)? Not even close. But it's still a very good one. It sucked me in. His whole first paragraph has a pleasing simple hypnotic rhythm to it. Immediately makes you curious as to just what the hell he's talking about.

“We went there for everything we needed. We went there when thirsty, of course, and when hungry, and when dead tired. We went there when happy, to celebrate, and when sad, to sulk. We went there after weddings and funerals, for something to settle our nerves, and always for a shot of courage just before. We went there when we didn't know what we needed, hoping someone might tell us. We went there when looking for love, or sex, or trouble, or for someone who had gone missing, because sooner or later everyone turned up there. Most of all we went there when we needed to be found.”

Moehringer's last line to his first paragraph more than his first line. There's certainly a poetry to it, and if I needed to describe the whole book in one sentence, I'd use that one.

And, yes, Moehringer is a fox. But does he remind anyone else of Trey McDougal from Sex and the City? Much cuter, of course. It must be the haircut.

I really like the book a lot, and I know Moehringer is off the hooch, but seems to me he's romanticizing bar life somewhat. I've gone through periods where I spent a lot of time in bars. It gets tiring, mainly because all that late night drinking will eventually grind you down. Also, bar relationships have a superficial quality. It's hard to really get to know anyone in that environment. You're buzzed. It's loud. The lights are dim. To a large degree you're disconnected from reality. In my experience, it's not at all like “Cheers." I've had a lot of good times in bars, but I've never had that reliable communal experience he depicts in the book. Kind of makes me want to start boozing in public again. (Not really.)

I see what you're saying about the whole bar environment, lefty. But I think Dickens was different than most bars, which was kind of the point. In a town full of bars, known for its bars, Dickens was THE bar. Sounds like one of those perfect places where everything comes together just right ... Of course, he did fall in love with the bar (full of men) when he was a child, somewhat fatherless, and in search of male role models. Hence, the romanticized notion of bar life you speak of.

... he gives up the writing life and becomes a street juggler, eventually gaining national attention on "America's Got Talent," then he gets a permanent high-profile gig as the opening act for Wayne Newton at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Sorry, bad joke. Really bad. Can you guess, Butcher Boy——what do you think happens at the end? I think the epilogue "One of Many" is one of the most emotional parts of the book. You'll dig it! Don't worry, I won't spoil it for you.

Actually, this brings up one potential problem with this forum. We should all try to be sensitive to spoilage. In other words, to the extent possible, we should discuss the book in a way that's sensitive to the fact that this is an untraditional book club and posters/readers will be at different points in the memoir. Don't ruin any big surprises for people!

I've spent a lot of time in the past working in a bar... little different than frequenting one but I have to say that sense of belonging, friendship, in-commoness does happen when you're there day in and day out. It becomes a place to go, even when you don't have to go, and there is a common thread of searching that seems to run through the veins of all the people that find a sense of home there. Having said all that, it's also shallower in some ways than other friendships I've experienced. Time spent together out of the bar doesn't feel quite right in the way that it does in the darkness, noise and drinking... Just bought this book yesterday at ebooks.com and am on chapter 6. Loving it and loving Moehringer's pacing and humor. Wish I could go to the event tonight but can't. Nice to meet y'all.

I sure had a fine time last night. Thanks to y'all for coming, and I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did. Slate Street was packed, and it ended up being a perfect environment for this kind of event. Thanks to the folks at Bookworks for putting it all together. Thanks, too, to J.R. Moehringer. Most writers spend so much time locked in solitary confinement behind their keyboards that they have no clue how to interact with a crowd. Not so with Mr. Moehringer. This guy didn't give a reading. He delivered a full-on five-star performance. He was so funny and so engaged with the audience, I heard at least two people say that he should start doing stand-up comedy. Even better, he really dug into The Tender Bar, illuminating it for me in ways I hadn't even considered. Nice guy, too. He let a few of us chat with him while he chowed down on a steak after his presentation. Very cool.

Anyway, he gave us lots of food for thought over the course of the evening. I hope some of you who were there last night will share your impressions, and post some comments on the book. If you have any problems logging on or registering, email me at steve@alibi.com or call me at 346-0660 ext. 251, and I'll try to get you set up.

Wow, I had SUCH a good time last night. I showed up because I am enjoying the book so much, but didn't expect to have a good time. I mean, really, "book signing and reading" doesn't sound very exciting, but MAN, was it awesome. The venue, the people, and J.R. (how very, very yummy!), all was great. Thanks Alibi! I think you guys are really on to something here!

I can't believe I forgot about the book signing!!!! Ugh! I had really wanted to go. It seems like I really missed out. However, I absolutely loved JR's memoir. I finished it a bit ago. It had a little bit of everything: it was funny, sad, sentimental...it was great! I wasn't too sure about it when I first heard about it, but once I started to read it, I found that it was well written and extremely engaging. I felt like I really got to know JR, and I was sad when the book ended. It's really hard to put into words how much I enjoyed this book. I guess the best way is to keep telling people about it. I think that I may have gotten by non-book boyfriend to read it!

... what a great book this is for writers. I mean, obviously, it has a very wide appeal, but for writers it's especially inspirational: Moehringer tells us again and again how hard it is to succeed, but also reminds us that success as a writer is possible with a little bit of talent and a ton of hard work. I love that part where he's putting together lists of pretentious 50-cent words to shoehorn into his prose to make it more impressive. (He did a funny bit on this at the event on Tuesday.) Hilarious. And a nice reminder that everyone in the world (pretty much) starts out as a terrible writer. Getting better sure can be an ordeal. I remember one of my undergraduate professors complaining about “word-drunk freshmen.” I still love that phrase. And I still feel like I'm word-drunk sometimes, even though I recognize that restraint is usually the key to good writing. Words can have such a narcotic effect, for the writer as well as the reader, it's easy to get carried away.

This book reminded me so strongly of a Sci-Fi classic by Spider Robinson, where only people who needed to find the bar could find it. All the plots came from people stumbling into the bar and making toasts by throwing their glasses into the fireplace. Hijinx ensue. But the pathos and connection (and puns) and the love of storytelling and words are all the same as in The Tender Bar, which I loved (and inhaled in three sittings).

I had to keep my pencil handy to underline simple words of wisdom every few pages -- quite unexpected for a young guy\'s story about growing up in a bar.

I thought the understanding of men and their relationship to each other and their mothers was really powerful, and I felt like I learned *a lot* from the author as well as all the other characters.

Oh, and from his charming & charismatic talk at Slate St., what our table was saying about him was not only that he should do stand up, but that he\'s the latest Mark Twain. Really. Guy\'s good.

Does anyone know why the publisher insisted on the J.R. versus the JR throughout the book?

Also, what I\'d like to ask him, now that I\'ve seen his storytelling in person, is how he rates as a storyteller compared to those he reveres in the book. I would bet that he doesn\'t even rank himself highly, but he sure charmed the pants off everyone the other night! We were eating out of his hand. When everyone lined up to get the book signed, it was almost all women (even though several men had asked questions earlier...). Quite the charmer.

I was a little turned off by all the testosterone, to be honest. But as a friend said, he had that heady combination of confidence, vulnerability, maleness, talent, and wisdom. Oh boy! Talk about Trouble!

Did you feel that his book was characterized by too much testosterone, or his performance, or both? Just curious.

Oh, it\'s kind of a running joke that there\'s more than one Callahan\'s book.

Spider Robinson got the idea as a short story, then sold the book, wrote the rest around it.

But it was such a runaway hit, everyone clamoring for him to write more, that he got to thinking more about the characters, and out popped book #2.

Everyone wanted it to be a trilogy, then, though. Spider again swore he couldn\'t write another one.

But then he did.

Then it was a trilogy-that-wasn\'t.

Then he wrote a fourth.

The original is definitely the best, but the characters and set-up are so addicting that you\'ll read them all anyway and forgive whatever faults you find in the later books.

Let me know what you think!

Is the first novel called \"Callahan\'s Crosstime Saloon\"? (I can\'t find \"Callahan\'s Place\" on amazon. Did the title morph?) I definitely want to hunt it down.

Mjae: In my vision of how this forum would play out (which didn\'t happen at all), people would post ideas on the book from across the spectrum, including some who might actually hate the book. I\'m kind of relieved we\'ve finally got some disagreement here. What\'s the point of discussing a book if we all believe exactly the same thing?

Anyway, I\'m wondering if there\'s another character in the memoir that works for you as a heroic figure. I can\'t think of one. I\'m not saying his mom is Superwoman or anything. She\'s simply heroic, strong and admirable in the real world sense, of doing the best for her kid in a very bad situation. That\'s no small thing. For Moehringer, at least, she was definitely a saving grace.

My argument isn\'t really that she\'s especially well drawn either. (I didn\'t mean \"strong\" in that sense.) There are aspects of her personality that remain a complete mystery. You don\'t get a deep sense of her past or what she was like before she became a mom. I agree with you that his portrait of her mainly revolves around her being a hard-working, dedicated mother, but I still think he spends more time on her than any other single character in the book, with the possible exception of Uncle Charlie, who, let\'s face it, is an amusing character but hardly heroic.

PS: No luck finding the Spider Robinson book at local stores yet. I\'m going to try Books and Beans this afternoon.

All of that was supposed to be a ramp-up to saying that my boyfriend's now reading it, 300 pages in, and he's not impressed. He says he can see why women like it, because they aren't as familiar with the whole male socialization process, but for men... He just can't understand what the big deal is. I think, like you, he just can't connect with the characters on any deep level.

To be completely contrary for a second, I think there's still lots to be said for a discussion about what people loved about the book, even if we all agree. I love adding more depth to my understanding and getting additional insights about why I should love the book even more based on what other people valued in it.

Sometimes those are better discussions than trying to talk across positions of "I love it" and "I hate it."

Quark, actually, I think we agree on almost everything. The story, the value of telling the story, etc.

I didn't mean to undercut your enjoyment of the book; I enjoyed reading it.

I'm just not having the lasting good feelings that others will most certainly have.

Cheers.