Come Here Often?: 53 Writers Raise a Glass to Their Favorite Bar
Sean Manning
As you might expect from a book with 53 contributions, there is quite a bit of variation here. The worst sections come across as exercises in self-regard (Adam Ross’s “Patterson House”); the best are understated portraits of a moment in time/place, more than of a bar per se (Joe Meno’s “Fireside Bowl”). In general, I thought the quality improved toward the end of the book. Unfortunately for me, even from a selection of 53 writers, there were only a handful with whom I was at all familiar–which probably speaks to both the overall caliber of the effort and my own level of literary awareness.