FALDBAKKEN’S English-language debut is set entirely in a grand old restaurant in central Oslo called The Hills, and is narrated by a seasoned waiter over the course of a few gorgeous meals.
Reading this book is a bit like experiencing a degustation menu. We are presented with small, sharp chapters which are very different in flavour and texture.
The story starts by setting up the history and the ambience of the restaurant, followed by its daily routines and practices which are quite boring and melancholic in its narrative.
Once the main characters are defined, the story moves on with its erratic and sometimes surprising flow until we come to a chaotic finale.
The waiter and other restaurant staff, including the nosy bar manager who mixes drinks; the snooty maitre d’ who sneaks drinks; and the silent chef - find themselves ever more scandalised by the uncharacteristic behaviour of their usually impeccably mannered clientele.
The Waiter is also a captivating study in miniature. Everything is just so, and that’s exactly how the waiter wants it to be.
One can understand why he becomes agitated when things begin to change or are out of the ordinary. The waiter then becomes so unsettled by the disruption of his establishment’s rigid rituals that he finds himself in the kitchen smashing all the chef’s cherry tomatoes in the garlic press.
He is also almost completely undone when another patron asks to leave his daughter at the restaurant while he goes on a day trip, but the waiter manages to entertain the child with an unusual-looking cauliflower.
The story is absurd but funny nevertheless.
Looks like Faldbakken’s story vandalises the old world the restaurant represents by revealing its inanities, while at the same time glamourising it by making it his subject, resulting in a novel that you either love or hate.
