The Waiter

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.

Narrator Jacques Roy's performance of this novel, which takes place in a restaurant in Oslo, captures the unnamed waiter's transition from impeccable to flustered when his daily routine is pushed off course by the arrival of a new customer. From the moment the beautiful young woman enters The Hills restaurant, the natural order of things begins to fall apart: Regular diners who have never talked to each other meet and make plans, the wall between customers and staff appears to be crumbling, and our middle-aged career waiter makes amateur mistakes. This quiet story is told solely from the waiter's perspective, and Roy's delivery highlights the deeper feelings and quirky humor behind the protagonist's observations. THE WAITER is perfect for listeners who enjoy character-driven audiobooks. C.B.L. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine