Tales From the Dew Drop Inne: VIDEOS

Kenneth Weene's "Tales from the Dew Drop Inne" tells of the Runyonesque regulars at an Albuquerque, New Mexico, bar called the Dew Drop Inne, ala Cheers, but more gritty than glitzy. The Dew Drop Inne is more "an island of floating debris" where people go to drink because there's nobody at home, or too many people, or disagreeable people. Weene immediately apologizes for the book's title: "There must be one of those pun-named bars in every town." Even if the characters do not think of themselves as "the dew drops," that name is at least as appropriate as "the sand pebbles," another lusty crew. Taverns and bar rooms have been scenes for drama and comedy at least since Shakespeare, and "Tales from the Dew Drop Inne" is akin to Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life" (rather than O'Neill's much darker "The Iceman Cometh"), and to the affable bums of Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" and "Sweet Thursday." Saroyan made his start with "colorful characters" like those found in this book, which reads like "The Time of Your Life" updated from the thirties.