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    The Waiter
    The Waiter
    The Waiter
    Ebook216 pages3 hours

    The Waiter

    By Matias Faldbakken

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    “As if The Remains of the Day had been written by Kingsley Amis, The Waiter is…one of the most purely entertaining novels I’ve read in years. This book is a meal you won’t want to finish.” —J. Ryan Stradal, New York Times bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest

    In the tradition of the modern classics The Remains of the Day and A Gentleman in Moscow comes The Waiter, in which the finely tuned balance of a timeworn European restaurant is irrevocably upset by an unexpected guest.

    The Hills dates from a time when pigs were pigs and swine were swine, the Maître D’ likes to say—in other words from the mid-1800s. Every day begins with the head waiter putting on his jacket. In with one arm, then the other. Shrugged onto his shoulders. Horn buttons done up. Always the same.

    There is clinking. Cutlery is moved around porcelain and up to mouths. But in this universe unto itself, there is scarcely any contact between the tables of regulars. And that is precisely how the waiter likes it. Sheer routine…until a beautiful young woman walks through the door and upsets the delicate balance of the restaurant and all it has come to represent.

    Told in a kaleidoscopic rotation of voices—the headwaiter, the bartender, the coat checker, the chef who never speaks—The Waiter marks the North American debut of an exciting new voice in literary fiction that will leave you longing to sit down at The Hills, order a drink, and watch the world go by….
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateOct 9, 2018
    ISBN9781501197543
    Author

    Matias Faldbakken

    Matias Faldbakken is a world-renowned contemporary artist and writer who shows with the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, and has been hailed as one of the freshest new voices to emerge in Norwegian literature during the past decade. The Waiter is his first novel in nine years and the very first he has written under his own name.

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    Reviews for The Waiter

    3/5

    39 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was rather interesting, it was sort of a stream of conscious/character study, all from the point of view of a somewhat neurotic waiter in a fairly upscale restaurant. He comes across a bit like Adrian Monk, although the mysteries he encounters aren’t deadly.Free review copy.
    • 4/5
      Well, that was odd. It's very much not going to be for everyone and I'm not 100% sure it was for me, but I think I liked it.

      It's the story of a waiter's disintegration when a new element—a carefree, enigmatic young woman—is introduced into his perfectly ordered world. The Waiter works at The Hills, an old white tablecloth restaurant that has become a bit shabby and ever more eccentric over time. He has his regulars, who are as predictable in what they choose to eat as they are in where they are seated. And then the Child Lady happens and an element of chaos is introduced and the predictable becomes unpredictable and it throws The Waiter off his game. He makes mistakes. He begins to ramble in his speech. He injures himself. He is both fascinated and repulsed by the Child Lady—may, in fact, be a little in love with her in spite of himself—and he becomes increasingly erratic.

      This descent into chaos and eccentricity is entertaining to watch, but also uncomfortable. There is a slightly voyeuristic feel to the whole thing and it doesn't always seem as if the author had much sympathy for his character, nor expected the reader to. In spite of the slightly uncomfortable feel with which it left me, this was also the kind of odd, quirky, eccentric book that I delight in.
    • 2/5
      I heard about this book on the Strong Sense of Place podcast (Restaurant episode). I found the audio on Hoopa.The narrator--who spoke slowly and rather blandly--might have been part of the reason I didn't enjoy it. But it generally I do not enjoy judgy-old-men books. I also am not familiar with this style of restaurant and have never been a recognized regular at a restaurant, so there might be jokes or observations that I completely missed here.I was confused by his many "serving errors" when not in particularly busy or crowded times. Is that meant to show his age catching up to him? Or his actual incompetence?Not for me.

    Book preview

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