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natalie_johnson's review against another edition
4.0
a very simple story about an ordinary man, i’m not sure why i liked it so much but i did. the writing was brilliant and i related a lot to pierre
kumipaul's review against another edition
4.0
So typically French in style! (This is a good thing.) Great dialog and French atmosphere, and a couple twists along the way that are intriguing. And the end...typical French. While dark at times, it was a very satisfying one-day read.
kmj98's review against another edition
4.0
I was pretty delighted to read this book. It was an interesting novella about love, French cafe life.
swineberg's review against another edition
2.0
Diaristic, quiet, and not terribly interesting. I’ve found that these types of slice-of-life books often help me address head-on the everyday fears and victories of life...but this novella felt crushingly rather than movingly mundane.
paulataua's review against another edition
5.0
‘The Waitress Was New’ focuses in on three days in the life of Pierre an aging bartender in a not wholly fashionable bar. Pierre is just three years away from his retirement. I'd just watched ‘Love Me Strangely’(1971), one totally weird movie, and unsuccessfully tried to get a copy of ‘Un Beau Monstre’, the book that gave birth to that movie. As a result, I just had to try this, another of the author’s novels. I loved it. Nothing much happens throughout the hundred or so pages, but it says so much, and I found myself unable to put it down. Fabre really captures people in their everyday lives.
I have already acquired another of his novels and am desperately trying to keep it from climbing up my TBR list.
I have already acquired another of his novels and am desperately trying to keep it from climbing up my TBR list.
lola425's review against another edition
3.0
Great little read if you're looking for something short and like books with a French sensibility.
darren_cormier's review against another edition
5.0
Pierre's is a quiet life. The head barman at a small cafe in the Parisian suburbs, he was once married (for a very short time) and now, a bit older, doesn't even date anymore. His life consists of working at the Le Cercle, where he has worked for over eight years, and occasionally having a drink at a neighboring cafe, and seeing a movie or having dinner with a friend.
The Waitress Was New focuses on Pierre's dealing with the changes at Le Cercle over the course of a week to ten day period, and how he deals with change within a quiet, meditative lifestyle. Having worked at Le Cercle for so long, and worked as a barman for so long, Pierre has learned more about human nature and motivations than most are aware. His is an anonymous profession, similar to the butler in Ishiguro'sThe Remains of the Day (minus the historical importance of the employers) His observations of the customers, and his understandings of who they are, propel the story, and make us wish we could actually be the apprentice to whom Pierre is teaching the trade to (were that possible):
"They come and go for the most part. Let the world turn around us, beyond our spotless bars, in the end every day will be wiped away to make room for the next."
"And then, not long after that, you could see tiny raindrops falling through the mist under the light by the newsstand, like little brushstrokes."
These observations, not only of people, but of atmosphere and environment, come from a life of watching, observing, anonymity.
The titular waitress of the book plays a very small role in the book, working at the bar for two days before she decides her commute is too far and that she cannot work under the circumstances to which the bar has fallen. Madeleine and Henri are the married proprietors of the establishment. Shortly after the book starts, Henri disappears, most likely to be with his mistress, and does not tell anyone. During this period, bills do not get paid, orders are not made for new supplies, food, vendors. The business is essentially left by Henri, who is the only one who calls the vendors and pays the bills, to flounder. He does not return. Pierre, as the longest employee, serves as a de facto manager and a calming presence. Amedee, the hot-tempered and talented chef, can always find another job, theorizes Pierre: he is young and talented.
Over the course of the next week, the restaurant closes for a few days, setting Pierre into an existential drift, the book becoming a meditation on loneliness. At 58, most of Pierre's friends are married or scattered. His closest acquaintances are fellow barmen, who serve him until after close and hold him in the same knowing esteem as we do those who share our profession. We see Pierre begin to wonder what his life has been, going through the memories of past girlfriends, of how long he has been in his apartment, of how his life of ritual and stability has hampered his ability to adapt, all the while told in Pierre's steadying voice, never feeling sorry for his circumstances, never rising above that of a kindly inquisitor. When he meets his closest friend less and less due to the others' romantic involvement, it's not an indictment of the friend, but a realization that habit and ritual, while creating comfort, can be the prime genesis of loneliness. Loneliness is the failure to adapt. when you are left with nothing but your past. Living is knowing loneliness won't defeat you.
"I wandered around for a while, and then I went into a cafe near Batignolles Park. I ordered a beer from a young guy in a white shirt... and we talked a little, when you're in the business you recognize each other. Maybe a barman still served some purpose, after all?... And that was that. I started back to toward Saint-Lazare to catch the last train home. But the closer I got the less I liked that idea. In the end, I decided to walk back to [my apartment]. Al my papers wer puled up in my table... waiting for me, and all my past."
The Waitress Was New focuses on Pierre's dealing with the changes at Le Cercle over the course of a week to ten day period, and how he deals with change within a quiet, meditative lifestyle. Having worked at Le Cercle for so long, and worked as a barman for so long, Pierre has learned more about human nature and motivations than most are aware. His is an anonymous profession, similar to the butler in Ishiguro'sThe Remains of the Day (minus the historical importance of the employers) His observations of the customers, and his understandings of who they are, propel the story, and make us wish we could actually be the apprentice to whom Pierre is teaching the trade to (were that possible):
"They come and go for the most part. Let the world turn around us, beyond our spotless bars, in the end every day will be wiped away to make room for the next."
"And then, not long after that, you could see tiny raindrops falling through the mist under the light by the newsstand, like little brushstrokes."
These observations, not only of people, but of atmosphere and environment, come from a life of watching, observing, anonymity.
The titular waitress of the book plays a very small role in the book, working at the bar for two days before she decides her commute is too far and that she cannot work under the circumstances to which the bar has fallen. Madeleine and Henri are the married proprietors of the establishment. Shortly after the book starts, Henri disappears, most likely to be with his mistress, and does not tell anyone. During this period, bills do not get paid, orders are not made for new supplies, food, vendors. The business is essentially left by Henri, who is the only one who calls the vendors and pays the bills, to flounder. He does not return. Pierre, as the longest employee, serves as a de facto manager and a calming presence. Amedee, the hot-tempered and talented chef, can always find another job, theorizes Pierre: he is young and talented.
Over the course of the next week, the restaurant closes for a few days, setting Pierre into an existential drift, the book becoming a meditation on loneliness. At 58, most of Pierre's friends are married or scattered. His closest acquaintances are fellow barmen, who serve him until after close and hold him in the same knowing esteem as we do those who share our profession. We see Pierre begin to wonder what his life has been, going through the memories of past girlfriends, of how long he has been in his apartment, of how his life of ritual and stability has hampered his ability to adapt, all the while told in Pierre's steadying voice, never feeling sorry for his circumstances, never rising above that of a kindly inquisitor. When he meets his closest friend less and less due to the others' romantic involvement, it's not an indictment of the friend, but a realization that habit and ritual, while creating comfort, can be the prime genesis of loneliness. Loneliness is the failure to adapt. when you are left with nothing but your past. Living is knowing loneliness won't defeat you.
"I wandered around for a while, and then I went into a cafe near Batignolles Park. I ordered a beer from a young guy in a white shirt... and we talked a little, when you're in the business you recognize each other. Maybe a barman still served some purpose, after all?... And that was that. I started back to toward Saint-Lazare to catch the last train home. But the closer I got the less I liked that idea. In the end, I decided to walk back to [my apartment]. Al my papers wer puled up in my table... waiting for me, and all my past."
lene_kretzsch's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
lisam's review against another edition
4.0
I heard about this one on The Librarian Is In and tracked down a used copy immediately. It is very quiet, gently human, and a little sad. Its tone was so different from much of what I read and it was really refreshing to give myself over to another kind of storytelling. Sometimes I didn’t know if the tone came from Fabre’s stylistic choice - the whole novella is an internal monologue - or from the translation. I know some French and I think the answer is likely a bit of both.