The Bartender's Tale

By: Ivan Doig

Narrated by: David Aaron Baker

Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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

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.

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.

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.

one of my favorites for now

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

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

Such an enjoyable listen

An engaging, well-written small town coming-of-age story taking place in 1960. I just love it when a great story is combined with a great narrator, this is why I love audiobooks.

Enjoyable to the end

Got lost in the story and enjoyed it to the very end. Will be looking at other books be Ivan Doig.

I am also a Montanan, Mr. Doig is a fine writer.

I really enjoyed the book and thought the performance. was terrific. I recommend it highly.