The Tender Bar

A Memoir

By: J. R. Moehringer

Narrated by: Adam Grupper, Daniel Thomas May

Now a major Amazon film directed by George Clooney and starring Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Lily Rabe, and Christopher Lloyd, a raucous, poignant, luminously written memoir about a boy striving to become a man, and his romance with a bar, in the tradition of This Boy’s Life and The Liar’s Club—with a new Afterword.

J.R. Moehringer grew up captivated by a voice. It was the voice of his father, a New York City disc jockey who vanished before J.R. spoke his first word. Sitting on the stoop, pressing an ear to the radio, J.R. would strain to hear in that plummy baritone the secrets of masculinity and identity. Though J.R.'s mother was his world, his rock, he craved something more, something faintly and hauntingly audible only in The Voice.

At eight years old, suddenly unable to find The Voice on the radio, J.R. turned in desperation to the bar on the corner, where he found a rousing chorus of new voices. The alphas along the bar—including J.R.'s Uncle Charlie, a Humphrey Bogart look-alike; Colt, a Yogi Bear sound-alike; and Joey D, a softhearted brawler—took J.R. to the beach, to ballgames, and ultimately into their circle. They taught J.R., tended him, and provided a kind of fathering-by-committee. Torn between the stirring example of his mother and the lurid romance of the bar, J.R. tried to forge a self somewhere in the center. But when it was time for J.R. to leave home, the bar became an increasingly seductive sanctuary, a place to return and regroup during his picaresque journeys. Time and again the bar offered shelter from failure, rejection, heartbreak—and eventually from reality.

In the grand tradition of landmark memoirs, The Tender Bar is suspenseful, wrenching, and achingly funny. A classic American story of self-invention and escape, of the fierce love between a single mother and an only son, it's also a moving portrait of one boy's struggle to become a man, and an unforgettable depiction of how men remain, at heart, lost boys.

Named a best book of the year by The New York Times, Esquire, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, NPR's "Fresh Air," and New York Magazine
A New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Booksense, and Library Journal Bestseller
Booksense Pick
Borders New Voices Finalist
Winner of the Books for a Better Life First Book Award

Critic reviews

"Simply a wonderful book about a heaven of a life that had everything going against it except intense love."—James Salter, author of Burning the Days

"Moehringer has crafted a yearning, lyrical account of his fatherless youth and the companionship he found...among the Dickensian characters at a neighborhood bar."—The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"The Tender Bar will make you thirsty for that life--its camaraderie, its hilarity, its seductive, dangerous wisdom."—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls

"The best memoirist of his kind since Mary Karr wrote The Liars' Club."—The New York Times

"In his gimlet-eyed memoir, The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer lovingly and affectingly toasts a boyhood spent on a barstool."—Vanity Fair

"The best thing about The Tender Bar is that it is many stories in one."—Entertainment Weekly

"A memoir about coming of age in, of all places, a great American bar. Blessedly, Moehringer's story is both joyous and triumphant."—David Halberstam

"A beautiful, gravelly love letter."—The New York Times Book Review

"[Moehringer] deftly acknowledges his background's writerly connections, describing his journey--from fatherless urchin living in his grandfather's messy house to hard-drinking New York Times copyboy--with Dickensian grandeur and displaying good humor about his failures."—PEOPLE Magazine (Critic's Choice)

"Supremely great."—Graydon Carter

"J. R. Moehringer has found a new perfect."—Esquire

"It's a fierce and funny coming-of-age story about ambition and yearning and necessary betrayals . . . superb literary brew."—NPR "Fresh Air"

"An engaging delight."—The San Francisco Chronicle

"Intoxicating and sobering. Emotionally engrossing, beautifully written."—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A wistful study of the character--and characters--of a Long Island bar...in the tradition of Joseph Mitchell and Damon Runyon."—New York Magazine

"A moving and evocative memoir. Moehringer imbues the place and the singular men who frequented it with loving humanity."—Associated Press

"Heart-wrenchingly funny."—USA Today

"The only thing wrong with this terrific debut is that there has to be a closing time."—Newsweek

"Moehringer's book is a homage to the culture of the local pub....Moehringer's lovely evocation of an ordinary place filled with ordinary people gives dignity and meaning to those lost lives, and to his own."—Publishers Weekly

Must Read

I read the book when it was first published and I've never forgotten it.

my book club is reading it this month and I was interested in listening to it. the narration was excellent and hearing the book still made my heart skip and tears shed at the beauty of this book.

loved every word

First of all, this narrator should narrate all books forever. He had me glued to each character that he brought to life. Bravo.
I too grew up without a father figure and a mother who struggled to provide, but for young girls, "daddy issues" turns out much differently than for our JR. I felt as if I were sitting beside them at Publicans. Every day. Uncle Charlie and the rest of the guys raised that kid right, whether they knew it at the time or not.
The tears started at Steve's death, and never really stopped after that. I'm going to start it over and listen again. It was that good.

Excellent!!!

My new #1 favorite book on audible. Wanted to listen to the book before watching it on Netflix. I’m sure I’ll be disappointed with the movie.

Spectacular!

If you are a lover of words and the beauty they hold, this book is for you!

First Timer

This is the first book that I’ve read by this author. A most enjoyable experience. His vocabulary and character descriptions bring the story to life. I was right there in the midst of them all. The narration was the best I’ve heard on audible. If you are going to watch the movie, I strongly suggest that you read the book before viewing. I’m about to order J.R.’s other book, Sutton. I hope that it’s as good as Tender Bar. I’ll let you know!