#493 Out on Bail- Denis Johnson

#493 Out on Bail- Denis Johnson

This is a drinking take, full of degenerates, crime, and little hope. Johnson is doing his best William Boroughs impersonation. The narrator flashes from memory to memory of his times at the Vine bar and his acquaintance, Jack Hotel that just beat a 25 year prison sentence for robbing a drug dealer. Although not a fantastic story, or an original one for that matter, it does have some nice quotes about drinking.

-Because we all believed we were tragic and we drank. We had that helpless, destined feeling. We would die with handcuffs on. We would be put a stop to, and it wouldn’t be our fault. So we imagined. And yet we were always being found innocent for ridiculous reasons.

-Sometimes what I wouldn’t give to have us sitting at a bar again at 9:00 a.m. telling lies to one another, far from God.

Rating: 7-7-6-7 Total= 27

#472 Two Men- Denis Johnson

#472 Two Men- Denis Johnson

This is a world filled with temporary connections, drunken courage and bad decisions. The Narrator is at a party with his two “friends” which are more like criminal partners. He gets caught fooling around with another man’s girlfriend and then gets as drunk as he can.

The rest of the night is these three degenerates, driving around town with another drunk they found in the back of their car. They are all just looking for the next thing, the next place to go, all the while worried about what fateful things from their past is on its way to do them harm.

Rating: 6-5-6-6 Total= 23

#362 The Dive Bar- Katherine Heiny

#362 The Dive Bar- Katherine Heiny

This is the first story in the debut book by Katherine Heiny, Single, Carefree, Mellow. This is my first time reading anything by Heiny…she had me at Dive Bar. I like dive bars, I like drinking at dive bars…hell I just like drinking. Of course this story isn’t really about a dive bar.

What I do like about this story is the setting, New York City. There are a lot of writers that are from, have lived in, or pretend to understand NYC. Not all of them succeed. Having moved away from NY just a year ago, and recently returned, reading about the bar and singles scene in Manhattan makes my heart twitch just a bit.

It’s small things, but familiar things, like Sasha and Monique deciding where to drink by walking towards each other on Broadway, and just stop in whichever bar they meet in front of.

“Sarah looks up and sees Monique down the block, and has that thrill you get from seeing someone familiar on the streets of New York, like looking through a box of old paperbacks at a garage sale and finding a copy of a novel you love.”

This collection is about being single. Heiny’s writing style is easy and treats this topic without pretense. So far, she gracefully avoids stereotypes of gender norms, which is hard when dealing with such a topic.

Now I want to go hit up a dive bar and talk with a friend about topics, both meaningful and not.

Rating: 8-8-8-8 Total= 32