First published 2021
J.R. Moehringer grows up listening to his father's voice on the radio. His father, a New York City disc jockey, disappeared before J.R. could speak. The boy sits on his stoop, ear pressed to the radio, trying to decode masculinity from that distant voice. His mother provides love and stability, but J.R. hungers for something more. When The Voice vanishes from the airwaves, eight-year-old J.R. discovers the corner bar. There he meets Uncle Charlie, who looks like Humphrey Bogart, Colt with his Yogi Bear voice, and Joey D the gentle fighter. These men adopt J.R. as their project. They take him to beaches and ballgames, teaching him their version of manhood through committee parenting. As J.R. grows older, the bar becomes his refuge during college struggles and career disappointments. He returns again and again, seeking comfort from rejection and heartbreak. The bar offers sanctuary but also temptation, pulling him away from the wider world his mother wants him to conquer.
Genres: family, 20th-century, american, coming-of-age, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York City
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
432 pages · Paperback · Grand Central Publishing
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse, substance-abuse