Later, at the Bar by Rebecca Barry (2007)
  Contemporary Fiction, 189 pages
  Published by Simon & Schuster Paperbacks

Usually I would place a blurb here about the book from it’s cover or jacket. However, inside there’s a description about the book by Hannah Tinti, author of Animal Crackers and The Good Thief. I liked it so much, I’ll quote her instead:

There is a kind of magic that happens at the right bar, with the right people, at the right time of night. A certain song comes on the jukebox, the bartender starts to sing, and two people wobble off their stools, lean into each other, and begin to sway. For a moment, it feels like the center of the world. Later, at the Bar is seasoned with characters who live for this kind of magic , who love hard and drink harder. Rebecca Barry skillfully weaves together their stories as if she is making her way through a room full of friends, then finds you a seat at the bar, leans over, and spills all of their secrets. They are full of heartache and hope, and you will want to stay with them, until everyone puts down their drinks and starts to dance.

The tavern in Barry’s story was founded by Lucy, who nurtured it because she “loved live music and dancing and understood people who liked longing more than they did love” and in doing so, “it became the center of the community.”

However it is not merely the center: it’s the lynch-pin.

When I first heard of this book, I thought it was a collection of short stories about individuals who frequent a bar, that each story may, or may not, be related to one another.

This is not the case. Yes, each chapter can stand on its own, but the author skillfully integrates one into another that this truly is ‘a novel in stories’.

I like the contemporary tone of the story and the fact that the characters are written so well, I actually recognized a few of them. They reminded me of someone I once knew – or still know.

It is this more than anything that struck me hardest. I used to watch Monday Night Football religiously at a restaurant/bar and formed strong friendships with some of the other patrons as well as some of the staff. In doing so you learn a lot about people. Sometimes even yourself.

These are the memories Barry’s writing brought back. She also shows the potentiality of what may have happened had many of those relationships continued through the amount of time that passes in Later, at the Bar. And if they remained centered around a bar.

Perhaps they both knew that it was the last time they would be together like this, that Grace would leave and they would both move on and later they might see each other in passing, or hear each other’s news, but they wouldn’t feel the heat of each other’s skin, or the roughness of each other’s hearts the way they did then. So they lay there for a while…wrapped around each other in the private, lavender time between night and day when anything can happen and sometimes, at least for a little while, all is forgiven.

I read this during Dewey’s Read-A-Thon, and I have to say it was my favorite. Definitely a keeper, and definitely worth 5 out of 5 Stars!

This is Rebecca Barry’s first book and was chosen as a New York Times notable book of the Year in 2007. Her nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Real Simple, Hallmark, and The Best American Travel Writing 2003. Her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, Tin House, Best New American Voices 2005 and elsewhere.