The Tender Bar

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2005

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Chapters 32-34Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 32-34 Summary

Moehringer begins Chapter 32 by recounting how his Uncle Charlie, after losing his girlfriend, Pat, to cancer, gambled more recklessly and had an air of carelessness about him. Even after he was arrested and interrogated for the names of his various associates in the mob, Uncle Charlie did not waver. While Moehringer felt great pride in his uncle’s resolve, he privately was concerned for him. He knew he was tens of thousands of dollars in debt due to his constant gambling on sports games and his penchant for betting on the underdogs.

Moehringer explains that, while all sports were a subject of great interest at the bar, boxing was the most sacred and the most discussed. The men at the bar watched the Leonard versus Hagler boxing match and were overjoyed when Leonard, whom Uncle Charlie had betted on, won. Moehringer, now in his early twenties, moved out of his grandfather’s house and into his own small Manhasset apartment located above a diner. Moehringer writes about his first crush since dating Sidney. He pursued an equally aloof “copygirl” who also worked for the Times. To prepare for their date at a museum, Moehringer studiously read everything he could about the exhibition, only to find that his date was unimpressed with his bookish showing off and ended the date early.

After many months of working for the Times, word spread around the newsroom that the Training Program for young graduates was being defunded. Moehringer claims that, while the Program was said to exist, “there was no training and no program” (277), as it did not make financial sense to promote so many copykids to reporter positions. He explains that most of those in the role of copykid would eventually be told that, while they could keep their current position, they should not expect to ever be promoted. This triggered an exodus of young people from the Times. While Moehringer chose to stay, the improbability of being promoted depressed him and he stopped trying to impress the editors. In this period, he also stopped talking to his mother, as he felt overcome with guilt at failing to financially care for her.

Because he was no longer putting effort into his job, Moehringer dedicated himself to writing more of his novel about Publicans. However, looking back at his early efforts, he shares that he did not understand why he wanted to write about the bar, and he calls his attempts meaningless.

Chapters 32-34 Analysis

Moehringer’s pride in his Uncle Charlie shows how much he continued to idolize him despite some of his poor habits. Moehringer’s memoir demonstrates his immense adulation of his uncle by explaining how his arrest made him feel “proud” and that Uncle Charlie returned to Publicans from police custody as a “conquering hero” (263).

While his uncle’s money troubles worried him, Moehringer put his Uncle Charlie on such a high pedestal that he still believed there would be no severe consequences to his compulsive gambling. In hindsight, he admits that his pride in his uncle’s arrest was “misplaced,” and this change of opinion demonstrates that the author has since changed and matured enough to recognize his hero’s shortcomings.

Even as a young adult, Moehringer was still impressed with his uncle’s persona and dedicates much of these chapters to focus on Uncle Charlie’s many gifts and talents. He invites readers to Uncle Charlie’s dramatic reenactment of the boxing match he had bet on, revealing his uncle’s great talent as a storyteller and his ability to entrance an audience. He also remembers that “[a]s deftly as he mixed cocktails, Uncle Charlie mixed his customers” and that he had an “uncanny knack for introducing people” (272).

Moehringer builds on his theme of his relationship with Uncle Charlie and the other men from Publicans by recounting their help in his development as a writer. Despite his discouraging experiences at his Times job, Moehringer produced more and more stories about the bar, which he fictionalized. Once he overcame his writer’s block and shyness, he allowed the men at the bar to become his editors, passing pages back and forth, and offering their opinions. He felt that they were more natural—and encouraging—editors than those at the Times office. These details help show that even as Moehringer’s personal and professional life had changed greatly during these years, he still greatly valued the feedback and validation of the men at Publicans.