Book Review of Short Story “Barman’s Eyes” by Nick Gerrard.

Part of his short story collection titled Graffiti Stories.

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I read the short story “Barman’s Eyes” from Nick Gerrard’s Graffiti Stories. I thought it captured the essence of what a young to middle-aged man would dream of having as their bar down the street. Funny, because the desire isn’t really complex. It is just a watering hole where socialization amongst strangers is encouraged, music is tastefully selected but not overpowering, and occasionally beautiful women come through the door who are willing to give regulars the time of day. Plus, the bartender is high-brow. A man of taste. A fellow respected in the community, like he was in the days when cobblers and juleps and coolers were on the menu rather than those smutty 80’s-named cocktails.

I particularly liked the details Gerrard provides about the food a man uses to try and seduce a female patron at the bar. While the character’s intent may be romantic, the reader starts to get hungry. Perhaps my biggest compliment to this story is that I myself would go t0 this bar.

From a classical literature standpoint, it got me thinking of Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well-Lit Place”. They both have a way of making it about the bar and the people. The drinks (though perhaps not the food) are secondary. Young men do not read literature as much as their female counterparts. I feel like stories such as this would keep their interest. Women have their guilty beach reads. This could be a guilty winter read for a guy that wants to stay in on a night and maybe sip some brandy out of a snifter in front of a fire.

Book synopsis: A collection of short stories written as personal struggle stories from the perception of the underdog protagonist.

Buy the full short story collection on Amazon here.

Buy Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lit Place” in his short story collection Winner Take Nothing here. Read Hemingway’s short story for free here.

Recommended Transient Visitors story if you liked “Barman’s eyes”

Check out Modern Mozarts from Book II of my Transient Visitors Collection of Very Tiny Tales.