The Bartender's Tale

The Bartender's Tale, by Ivan Doig.

Riverhead Books, member of the Penguin Group,  

2012, 387 pages.

 Frankly I don't know how he does it. Ivan Doig has composed a story that simmers as you are drawn into the body of work. Then, at every turn, there are shifts in the storyline: some stunning, some subtle. Doig’s tale is well worth your time. This is true even if you read it simply for the word play.

Every child is in his/ her own way a genetic marvel. Doig’s story of a child called Rusty begins in a sobering way, as a roll in the hay leads to unintended consequences. The end result is to be celebrated. A gate closed behind the couple who engendered Rusty now reveals the boy’s future as he traverses a passageway of splendid possibilities.

First though, Rusty is ‘exiled’ to Arizona after his parents "split the blanket" in the parlance of 1950's Montana. While his aunt and uncle serve him well, his cousins, four and six years older, treat him with something short of abuse. Rusty’s father sends a stipend to help with the care of young Russell, and drops in to take his son on vacations, usually to the Grand Canyon.

One day shortly before school is scheduled to start, "Pop" shows up to take his only son back to Montana. After overcoming some initial misgivings, Rusty happily rides north towards Big Sky Country. Along the way, he gains appreciation, regard, and respect for his father. Pop is an imposing figure with jet black hair like Rusty’s, as well as an ease in dealing with people. Rusty’s father has a distinguished-looking silver streak in his hair, and bright blue eyes that interact expressively with his prominent eye brows.

As Rusty and Pop arrive in Gros Ventre, Montana, their vehicle is suddenly swarmed by sheep. Rusty finds this way beyond disconcerting. His father tells him this is a common occurrence and they are quite safe. They meet Dode Withrow, a sheep rancher herding the flock through town. Dode asks if they are here for the derby. Rusty's father had been hoping to keep the aforesaid derby a surprise. Rusty envisions Go Karts careening down a hilly course; what happens is slightly different.

Rusty winds up wondering if his father just had him come up for the derby and would then send him back to Arizona, or just what the plan is. Pop lets Rusty know in no uncertain terms that he is a keeper.

Pop owns and operates a bar called The Medicine Lodge: below the bar’s name, the sign reads: “Beer / Soft Drinks / Full Bar / And Then Some.”  ‘And Then Some’ refers to the fact that The Medicine Lodge is a social gathering place. The phrase was added by the original owner during prohibition. Rusty’s Pop decided to keep it the sign as it was.

Rusty ends up being quite the helper. The boy deals with inventory, counting cases of beer, spirits, and pop, and sweeps the barroom. When not working, he takes refuge in an elevated back room where he is privy to goings-on in the adult world. Also in the back room is a treasure trove of hocked items which, if not redeemed, result in a mobile warehouse on wheels as Rusty's father crams all he can into his spacious 1933 black Packard and heads north to Canada.

Rusty worries during trips such as these. He fears that the father  he is only just getting to know might meet with some unfortunate end. His father informs him that such trips are required so as to pay the bills. Rusty also worries that he could somehow end up with the mother who abandoned him before he was old enough to remember her.

Later we are treated to the introduction of Rusty to an age-mate and potential playmate. But while the parents figure why not  make friends, the tweens see it as a confrontation with the enemy. In this case the confrontation is between Rusty and Zoe (the age-mate turns out to be a twelve year-old girl). Zoe seems to have an aversion to eating, irrespective of the fact that her parents Melina and Pete Constantine operate a diner.

Zoe empathizes with Rusty's "half orphan" status but thinks it would be great to have only one parent to yell at you. The two kids become as thick as thieves as Rusty forms a habit of eating at the diner. Soon he has the opportunity to show off the back room at The Medicine Lodge along with a vent that can be opened, allowing the two to have eyes and ears on the adult proceedings at the bar. The beauty of this clandestine set-up is that the two  can see without being seen, and hear without being heard.

Neither of the two kids is shy on imagination. They develop a language foreign to both Webster's and Funk and Wagnall’s. The  two continue  to bond as Zoe becomes fascinated by the treasure trove of hocked items in the back room. Rusty also shows her the art of model building, a hobby she picks up quickly and revels in sharing.

When the friends see a "Shakespeare on Wheels" presentation put on by students from the University of Missoula, the show is a match-to-candlewick spark of inspiration for both of them. They arrive curious, and depart vowing to be thespians.

One day a man from back east arrives in a vehicle that will come to be known as the “gab van”. The man’s arrival changes everything. His name, Delano, gets the attention – and sympathy – of Tom Harry, Rusty’s Pop. Tom is a huge fan of FDR, so much so that he has a poster of the Depression Era president taped to a mirror on one side of the cash register. Delano, on assignment from Washington, D.C., is on a mission to give voice to a neglected part of the nation’s history: 1930’s Fort Peck, Montana: then the site of a major project of the U.S. Public Works Administration, and of the saloon-filled shantytowns that had sprung up alongside the vast Fort Peck dam. Delano plans to use his Gab Lab, a van outfitted with microphones and tape recorders, to transcribe as many eye-witness accounts as possible.

Delano and his gab van arrive at a time when Tom’s Medicine Lodge has been honored as The Select Beer Establishment of the Year for the entire state of Montana. Delano urges Tom, who ran a saloon called The Blue Eagle in the 1930’s, to accompany him to a reunion at Fort Peck. When Tom agrees, ghosts from his past surface, disrupting the lives of all involved on multiple levels.

There is a potential seismic shift on the horizon for some of the characters that populate Ivan Doig’s Montana Idyll. Timing being  fickle, however, one life-changing  event that had been discussed fails to materialize. Then again, what does unfold turns out to be more life-changing than anything Doig’s characters might have imagined.

The Great Depression spawned a project that generated over 10,000 jobs in Fort Peck in 1938. This FDR recovery act project mandated the construction of a dam on the Missouri River. Tom Harry’s tavern, The Blue Eagle, was named for the emblem born by the Fairness in Wages legislation enacted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Blue Eagle was wildly popular at the time, as due in part to the association with FDR. The other driving force behind the tavern’s popularity was bartender Tom Harry.

In the process of retrieving and restoring history, we encounter transformative changes which it is time for you, fellow readers, to enjoy and to see through to the end. We have a stand-in for Marilyn Monroe for you to meet. We have a "cousin" with a criminal past. And we have a cupid call for a young couple other than the one that might seem evident as you read this.

Oh, lest I forget to mention it, we have an open police investigation that has gone unsolved for some twenty-two years.

Find the high ground and summon all of those within earshot. Or shout it from the rooftops. The Bartender's Tale is a can't-miss reader’s success story, even for those of us who would be just somewhat disposed to giving reading a try.

Review by Robert White

See my Profile