The Waiter

Starred review from August 1, 2018
Disturbances in the routines of an old restaurant unhinge the head waiter in this droll, understated debut novel by a Norwegian artist and writer.The Hills restaurant in central Oslo dates from the mid-1800s and aspires to a Continental ambience, although it has succumbed to grubbiness and grime over the years. As the unnamed waiter opens the narrative, he mentions tradition, alludes to regularity, and defines his role: "I wait. I please." But something is off. A normally punctual regular known as "the Pig" is 11 minutes late. Worse: One of his expected guests is even later. When she does appear, she's an attractive young woman who "looks like debauchery dressed as asceticism." Is the waiter smitten? There are other disturbances over the course of several days. The Pig wants to do business with another patron. Regulars leave their usual tables and commingle. A meal is ordered in reverse, starting with the cheese trolley. The waiter makes a serving error, then another. He injures his hand in the cellar, and the chef performs surgery on the resulting blood blister in a stomach-turning scene. The waiter inexplicably finds himself in the kitchen putting cherry tomatoes through a garlic press. The chef orders him to get replacements from the cellar, and there begins the odyssey of the Romanesco, a sort of cauliflower that tickles the waiter's fancy. He presents it to the chef instead of the tomatoes. He carries it with him to wait on the young lady. He leaves it on the bar. It's all so out of character. And what horror does the waiter discover on the mezzanine, where Johansen plays piano nonstop? Bringing to mind Mervyn Peake and Wes Anderson, with some of Nathanael West's deadpan grotesque, this is a beguiling, quirky entertainment.

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August 27, 2018
Faldbakken’s English-language debut is an ambitious, contained story set entirely in a grand old restaurant in Oslo called The Hills, narrated by a seasoned waiter over the course of a few gorgeous meals. The waiter and others on the staff—the nosy bar manager mixing drinks, the snooty maitre d’ sneaking drinks, the silent chef—find themselves ever more scandalized by the uncharacteristic behavior of their usually impeccably mannered clientele (one even takes out his phone) after a beautiful young woman joins the intimate setting. The waiter becomes so unsettled by the disruption of his establishment’s quotidian rituals that he finds himself in the kitchen smashing all the chef’s cherry tomatoes in the garlic press. He is almost completely undone when another patron asks to leave his daughter at the restaurant while he goes on a day trip, but the waiter musters enormous kindness by entertaining the child with an unusual-looking cauliflower. The story is absurd—when the scents of two diners mix, it is “equivalent to the miracle of mayonnaise... something completely new and special occurs between them”—about nothing, and everything. Faldbakken’s story vandalizes the old world the restaurant represents by revealing its inanities, while at the same time eulogizing it by making it his subject, resulting in a clever, striking novel.

November 15, 2018

Waiting for Godot meets Kitchen Confidential meets Seinfeld, this hilarious, beautifully written, gleefully postmodernist novel by contemporary artist and Norwegian writer Faldbakken is a delight from start to finish. Set in a distinguished old European restaurant that has been in business since the 1880s, the novel is told through the eyes of one of its waiters. This gentleman has a long history at the restaurant, but he does not appear to have much of a life at all beyond his job. His commitment to his craft--and especially to "regularity and service"--has an existentialist cast to it because, as he admits, it acts as a "bulwark against inner noise" and appears to be protecting/distracting him from some kind of shadowy or painful past, or maybe even a shadowy or painful present. Not much happens in the novel. Longtime patrons come and go, and an attractive young woman has joined one group of regulars and appears to be also on friendly terms with another group of competing regulars. Eventually, there is a scuffle between these two clans and a piece of fennel salami is thrown. The waiter observes all this with a curious and attentive eye, as Faldbakken brings to life the comedy and absurdity of daily life with inspired wit and skill. VERDICT Put on the shelf with Samuel Beckett. Essential for literary fiction fans.--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

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October 1, 2018
Norwegian author Faldbakken's U.S. debut unfolds over five days inside The Hills, an Oslo establishment akin to (though decidedly not as grand as) the Grand European restaurants of yore: marble tables; uniformed staff; creased everything; snails on the menu. The Hills' routines comfort our eponymous (and unnamed) narrator?even the few memories he shares take place there. Old Johansen's at the piano, Old Pedersen checks coats, the kitchen ceiling's blackened to soot, and the flowers on the bar are starting to rot. Truly, everything at The Hills is old. (Jarring mentions of social media remind readers it's the present day.) The waiter excels at decrumbing surfaces, being self-effacing, and bottling up emotion, but he might be coming undone. A mysterious new female customer throws him with her mere presence and then, much worse, by connecting formerly distinct groups of restaurant regulars. Faldbakken, who's also a visual artist, paints The Hills' interiors, the waiter's psyche, and diners' interactions with a deep, often-funny theatricality. For those who love encapsulated novels with a touch of the absurd.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)