Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer’s fondest memories center around his neighborhoods local bar in his novelThe Tender Bar: A Memoir, a culture he was introduced to at an early age. With an absent father, a struggling single mother, and an all-around riotous, dysfunctional family settled in Long Island, for Moehringer, his uncle’s pub became his adopted home and its patrons his adopted father figures who give him the needed education that will benefit him later in his life. It is at the bar where he learns about love, misses its absence, and laments its loss. In the tragedy of 9/11, Moehringer knew 50 people who died in the attack, including the bartender readers will meet earlier in the novel. The Tender Bar is a loving tribute to the gruff but kind personages in Moehringer’s life that subtly shape his sense of self and contribute to who he is today.