A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City

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This is a fascinating book, full of anecdotes that would sound far-fetched in a work of fiction, but that are all absolutely true. But A Waiter in Paris shows us the reality of what it’s really like to live and work in the heart of a city, doing most of the work with little payoff as those at the top reap all the benefits. A Dickensian tale of a young man's trial by fire in a French bistro gives rise to biting commentary on Parisian culture in Chisholm's intoxicating debut.

Chisholm brings the restaurant world to life as he relates the stress, pressure, and anxiety felt by all the workers. Unable to find work after graduating from a London university, Chisholm followed his girlfriend to Paris looking for any type of work that he could find.

Many years ago, when I was in my early twenties, I lived in Copenhagen where I was registered with the Foreign Ministry as correspondent for The Times. However, if you are looking for an authentic experience as well as some beautiful character creation (with a side of personal growth ), you will absolutely enjoy this. A modern-day telling of George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London", it exposes the modern seedy underbelly of Paris while at the same time, it's still Paris. It's horrifying as you might expect in some ways (your food may or may not have been spilled on the floor and scooped up, wiped off, and put back grandly on your plate.

I opened A Waiter in Paris to find a cultural dumpster dive - a deep, penetrating, spiral into the other side of the City of Lights. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added. If food and crockery topple over out of sight, with a sound ‘like a cliff collapsing into the sea’, the waiters quickly scoop up the duck breasts and haricots from the floor, plonk them on fresh plates, ‘and the table is none the wiser’. As the pages trickle by and we dig deeper under the well-worn cobblestones of Paris with Edward, the anecdotes become more personal, vivid and a wholly authentic representation of what the real Paris looks, feels, smells and tastes like. After walking the cold streets, anxious to find any sort of work, Chisholm becomes a waiter earning €1,086.Back in 1933, George Orwell published his groundbreaking work Down and Out in Paris and London, which explored his experiences of poverty in both cities. A few hours later after some terrible food poisoning, Edward's accounts came flooding back into my mind and I was imagining all the ways my food had been mishandled.

a world of refugees, exiles, dreamers, sadistic and abusive managers, long hours, and, strangely enough, malnutrition . Power struggles, abuse and fear are told through a humorous and stoic tone, giving us as viewers a window into a world of brotherhood and thievery. The book is heavily based around the restaurant so while there's not much in the way of actual events, the characters and interpersonal relationships are entertaining enough that you'll enjoy yourself.The Hogarth Press where I’m working, is in the heart of the literary world, with authors coming in all the time. This astonishing book describes a cruel, feral existence and is worthy of standing on the shelf next to George Orwell’s Down And Out In Paris And London (1933) as another classic about human exploitation. A young Englishman's journey into the merciless world of Parisian restaurants is propulsive, harrowing, and expertly observed. Chisholm has the unenviable job of painting that picture but does so with broad strokes and interesting results.

I saw another reviewer complaining that the author failed to paint a portrait of paris outside of the restaurant. He brings the restaurant world to life as he relates the stress, pressure, and anxiety felt by all the workers. In the UK, the vast majority of our drama, literature, comedy and reporting is created and commissioned by white, middle class, liberally educated men. If you’ve ever been to Paris and you’ve eaten in a restaurant, you’ll likely have no idea what goes on behind the kitchen door but there’s a whole other world there with its own hierarchy and rules that, unless you really understand how it works, can be impossible to break into (especially as a foreigner). I worked as a waiter in college, though under much different conditions, so I could relate just a little.

Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. I remember going to an excellent traditional restaurant on the Blvd Saint Germain for Sunday lunch and as I was a good tipper and easy to deal with I was moved from rang to rang on each different Sunday by the lady owner so that as many waiters as possible got a decent tip. Though disparagingly nicknamed L’Anglais, Chisholm was grudgingly educated by his peers and, after six months of backbreaking 14-hour days, he was promoted to waiter. Dumped by his French girlfriend, down to his last few coins, and generally ‘worse off than when I started at university’, at least Edward Chisholm is in Paris. Over the last eight months, as I’ve disappeared into the world of waiting, I’ve lost contact with people outside of it.