JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile
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
The New York Times Book Review - Pete Wells
…Faldbakken has a way with nonaction. He builds a delicious tension between the paucity of events and the lavishness of the technique with which they are described. His waiter, though taciturn while on duty, is a chatterbox as a narrator, providing a busy, intricate analysis until each minor stumble achieves seismic status. Played in slow motion, his malfunctions unspool as slapstick with an undertow of dread. As the story moves along, the waiter loses his sense of who he is and what he's supposed to be doing so completely that he starts to seem like a man who could do anything. He's like Travis Bickle played by Buster Keaton.
Publishers Weekly
08/27/2018
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. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"[Faldbakken] builds a delicious tension between the paucity of events and the lavishness of the technique with which they are described. His waiter, though taciturn while on duty, is a chatterbox as a narrator, providing a busy, intricate analysis until each minor stumble achieves seismic status. Played in slow motion, his malfunctions unspool as slapstick with an undertow of dread. As the story moves along, the waiter loses his sense of who he is and what he’s supposed to be doing so completely that he starts to seem like a man who could do anything. He’s like Travis Bickle played by Buster Keaton." –The New York Times Book Review
"There is some satisfaction in reading The Waiter as a quirky slice of life... If you follow the author’s clues, you may feel a chill up your spine. You may see the waiter in a different light... You can read this surprising book several different ways." –The Los Angeles Times
"[A] droll, understated debut novel by a Norwegian artist and writer... Bringing to mind Mervyn Peake and Wes Anderson, with some of Nathanael West's deadpan grotesque, this is a beguiling, quirky entertainment." –Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"As if The Remains of the Day had been written by Kingsley Amis, The Waiter is a brilliantly exquisite view into an uproariously vigilant life of service and protocol. In Faldbakken's skilled hands, a mordant, lonely waiter in a declining restaurant becomes a raw, scrupulous force, powering 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
"Faldbakken’s English-language debut is an ambitious contained story set entirely in a grand old restaurant in Oslo called The Hills... a clever, striking novel." –Publishers Weekly
"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." –Booklist
