The Waitress Was New

"I'm only a barman, and when I forget that, the world around me seems like a bunch of different movies running at the same time. There are romance movies and sad movies, and if you pay attention most of their stories start to get all mixed together, till there's no way you can go on telling them to yourself. It's like they're all chasing after each other..." This excerpt shows the complications inherent in the life of the "simple" bartender. Rather than being the nameless face behind the bar, important only in his quick delivery of a cocktail or beer, this novella by Dominique Fabre goes much deeper into the life of a very complex man. The story takes place over only a few days, yet we see, in detail, the conflicts within him and within his profession in the upscale cafe Le Cercle, where he's worked some eight years. There's an abundance of unique characters, from the black-dressed young man who covers his poetry books with paper to hide the contents, to the articulate, kindly man who argues with the Moon and on to the beautiful but betrayed owner's wife. One of the underlying themes appears to be the pathological desire for order that Pierre, our fifty-six year old barman seeks. From his keeping the restaurant functioning to the way he does his laundry, Pierre is the picture of routine efficiency mixed with constant self-analysis. Yet his memories, that flood him often, reveal a past far from the orderly and efficient one he is living now.

I love the title of this book, but it's not about the waitress. The narrator is Pierre, a fifty-six-year-old barman at Le Cercle, a busy café in the suburbs of Paris. Pierre is a fixture at Le Cercle, where's he's worked steadily for the last eight years. But there are no fixtures in life. One day the boss disappears, and his wife after him. What now? The translator of this book must be good. You can almost hear the sad lilt of French in the English prose. That's important, because style is the real substance of this little novel. Pierre has had his troubles in life - love and loss, sickness and drunkenness - but he's on the other side of "all that love business" when we meet him, alone and "seeing nothing more to come." In his own words, Fabre celebrates "places or people who have somehow been overlooked." His subject is the everyday. Don't look for excitement here, just a certain poignant sense of life slipping by. In a larger sense, of course, Pierre's situation represents the human condition. I'd like to try another novel by Fabre, but this seems to be the only one in English so far. Since I'm frivolous enough to care about how a book feels in the hand, I'll just mention that this book is elegantly designed and nicely produced, as refined as the writing within.

Pierre is a bartender in a busy neighborhood café just outside of Paris, who lives a mundane but peaceful life as he nears the end of his work career. He has experienced the ups and downs of life, but has no regrets about what has happened to him. He has only a few more trimesters of work before he can draw a full pension, and plans to work at the café until that time, as he has established a comfortable relationship with the owner and his wife. He lives alone, having no relationship with his ex-wife or past lovers, and his days are largely taken up with work. Sabrina, the regular waitress, calls in sick, and a new waitress takes her place, without disrupting the tenor of the café. A few days later, the owner calls Pierre to inform him that he will not be working at the café that day; however, the owner's wife has no idea where he is, but suspects that he is having an affair with Sabrina. As the days progress, the owner continues to remain missing, and the operation of the café begins to slowly unravel. This is a simple, quiet, and beautiful story of an ordinary man, which is infused with emotional depth and wisdom

Losing one's livelihood is never easy. "The Waitress Was New" follows Pierre as the cafe that employed him as a bartender for most of his life suddenly closes. Over the next three days he much acclimate himself to the shock and figure out what to do. A deft examination of the human psyche, excellently translated from the original French by Jordan Stump, "The Waitress Was New" is a great pick for any seeking foreign fiction.

Pierre is a bartender, a sweet man who has almost reached the age at which he could retire. He loves what he does, it is what he lives for and how he breathes. This book humble, yet so triumphant and full of life at the same time! It is very real, no huge ups and downs, no drum rolls, no brass bands. It is just what the author Dominique Fabre has intended: plain, simple, beautiful. He aims to share the life of a person on the margins, or someone that would not usually be interesting enough to write about, someone who you may not even notice. For some reason it feels like he could have chosen me or you in choosing Pierre, it is a person that is not worthy, and yet he never says that he is. It's pureness is very attractive. The Waitress Was New drives the reader a desire to know this raw individual, Pierre. To learn more about him and his situation, and what will become of him in the end. The novel is human, and real and is not full of dramatic effect moments or overly sentimental junk. It is a story of a regular bartender, in a regular place, doing regular things. It is the way that Fabre conveys it all that is interesting...you dive down deep and come up with your fists full, and at the end of this novel he leaves you wishing for more, but knowing at the same time that it was the way it should be. For the full 117 pages I was engulfed in reading this book it is so full of heart and personality. I am always more interested in the books that are about people that seem real to me and this is definitely one of those. It is about people-watching, living, loving, dying, old age, changes and sticking through it. I loved it. Here are some quotes for you that I thought were really great: "I'm a fixture around here, people realize that. I served a few beers, brought the school kids their coffee, two coffees plus three glasses of water, and the girl greeted me with a peck on the cheek" (p. 16). "I don't look outside too much because everything that matters to me in life always ends up sitting down at my bar, but just then I had a feeling, and I looked out toward the street. Yes, it was going to rain" (p. 22). " I get off at seven but I'm never a stickler about leaving on time, what have I got to do at home? I'm just a barman, and the longer I stay on the more life goes by in the best possible way. So there we are" (p. 38). "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 carefully wiped away to make room for the next. That's why I make myself watch the late-night news on Channel 3, you can't just forget everything, after all" (p. 98).