The Waiter

Matias Faldbakken

Oct 2018 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

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….

Ratings and reviews

A story of an old and established restaurant in Oslo is turned upside down with the addition of a woman into the ranks. Told by the waiter, a long-term and rather set in his ways employee, he’s the epitome of someone who does not deal well with change, and carries many (or most) of the traits that one who is frightened by all he cannot or does not wish to accept into his closed off little worlds: he reacts badly. And it is his reactions that become the focal point for satire, derision and even a sly sort of generational scoffing at the ‘old guard’. The waiter is not one who engenders any sort of empathy, from the moment we realize that he thrives in the ‘familiar’ and the established. Customers are all regulars, with their usual tables, a fairly samey sort of order, the interactions with waitstaff are also familiar and proscribed. Diners rarely interact with anyone else but their servers, each night everyone is aware of who is coming, and the restaurant has lost some of the glamor that had been its hallmark since the doors opened in the 1800’s. But, the ownership wants to restore or enhance the reputation, and hires a woman, the first, to work in this old school place, and that, is one step too far. The waiter starts with anxiety and concern, watchful and frightened by the changes that often erupt in his own forgetfulness –more newness for this man who never put a foot wrong before. His often unkind yet exacting descriptions of patrons and staff, with frequent forays into philosophical ramblings that, at first, feel rather abstracted, but getting the insight into his thoughts, and the aged and often staid examples used, are brilliantly done. But, be aware, this is not a book for everyone, and in so saying, it also isn’t one that leaves you thinking about the likeability of the characters. It’s is pointed, often unsympathetic and feels ‘observatory’ in that the waiter, in his very defined explanation of how his world works (and is meant to) does never truly engage with the reader – there’s a proper remove from his own recognition of his emotions and fears, as well as his clutching to the ways of the past. The author is an acquired taste – but a wonderful read for pointed satire and clearly defined depictions of fearfulness that limits one’s ability to move forward and see / accept / work within change. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

About the author

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.