Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For me there was simply too wide of a gap between what the back cover promised and what WAITER RANT actually delivered. The summary claims to "[tell] the story from the server's point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogance, misbehavior and the little unseen bits of human grace[...]" This description sounds like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, while that quote is technically correct, the actual anecdotes that follow are very few and very far between. And the filler wasn't interesting enough to hold my interest. WAITER RANT shares its name with a blog. It also (alas) shares other aspects of this new form of communication. The book is very shallow, cursory and self-absorbed. It can be difficult to relate to if you do not actually know the person involved. This is something I've noticed with a lot of blogs. For example, a blog entry about the birth of the author's child might be absolutely overwhelmingly joyous news to you if you happen to be a friend of the author, but utterly meaningless if the author is just a random person on the Internet. Reading a blog over a long period of time may make a reader feel more of a personal connection to the author. In that case, the bite-size, minimalistic style of blog writing may work. However, a novel (or a memoir) is a different medium. It's more immediate. It's not generally read in small doses over a long period of time. For an instance of how what I'm talking about impacts this book, take chapter two. This is the section where The Waiter discusses the series of events that brought him to the point in his life where he first took a job in the service industry. The chapter deals with his entrance into a Catholic seminary, his disillusionment with a potential life as a priest, his job working in a psychiatric facility, the death of a very close friend, the break-up of a long-term relationship, his disillusionment with the job in the psychiatric facility, and his subsequent firing from the psychiatric facility. Each of these topics is a life-altering event. Each of these topics deserves time for explanation, for the author to describe the impact. Here's my problem with the way the book is written: chapter two is a little over eight and a half pages long. There is absolutely no time for reflection; we simply jump right into the next sketchy event. Entering into the substance of the book, the actual anecdotes all seem to fall into a very similar formula (rude customer asks for something ridiculous; waiter stares at him for a bit; customer doesn't get his way and mutters, "Unacceptable"). Unfortunately, the repetitive nature of the storytelling and the lack of genuinely interesting stories hurts. For comparison, I read Anthony Bourdain's KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL years ago, and I can still recall several of the funny tales. It's only been a few days since I read WAITER RANT and already the memories are fading quickly. The writing style itself doesn't help make the stories memorable either. Many interactions between himself and others are presented as dialogs (the passages are placed within quotation marks, however I must assume that he is only paraphrasing; I can't believe that anyone actually speaks the way they are written here). These sections appear in two basic formats: him patiently explaining something simple to a disgruntled customer (usually accompanied by a "thousand-yard stare" which the author must believe renders well on the printed page) and him patiently (and smugly) dispensing some simple wisdom to a less experienced co-worker. Every person the author interacts with has an extremely similar voice, which is unfortunate given that the actual people span both genders, several ethnic/cultural groups and many age ranges. I was bored and disappointed by WAITER RANT, especially in comparison to a book like KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL or even compared to the mental image I had created based on the description. The book feels like it should have more meat to it. It promises dirt, but the best is can deliver is a waiter who gets back at customers by meekly pretending that their credit card has been declined before giving up on the joke and making the charge.