The Bartender's Tale tells the story of life in a rural town in northern Montana, as seen through the eyes of a young boy being raised by his single father. The book takes place in the late fifties/early sixties in a bar where the patrons are mostly farm hands. Tom, the bartender, provides a good life for his son, Rusty, at least that's how the boy sees it. Rusty spends a lot of time in the backroom of the bar with his best friend, Zoe, eavesdropping on the patrons. That's how they learn about life until they are joined by Francine, a young woman out of Tom's past life and Del, a man working on collecting audio stories of life in that area.
I felt the characters were all interesting and the many vignettes were believable and well written. I liked the picture this book gave me of an area of the country I do not know well. I didn't know this was the second book in a series until I was done reading it, which shows how well it stands on its own. I'll probably read the others.
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