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nithou's review against another edition
4.0
J’ai presque retrouvé la beauté de certaines œuvres de Zweig dans ce petit livre. Une vie tranquille d’apparence sans ride, qui recouvre un amour que le narrateur n’arrive pas à oublier et qui le hante. Une douleur lancinante hante ce récit où l’on veut serrer Ernest dans les bras, pour faire passer cette douleur qu’il ne laisse jamais transparaître mais qui l’habite.
lucie2188's review
3.0
The book lays it on very thick with the lifetime devotion to a fleeting memory. It's almost bordering on unbelievable. At the same time, though, the story is a good one, never relents from hitting you with yet another revelation about the twisted nature of the young manipulative lover.
councillor's review
5.0
It has been almost one and a half years since I read this tiny little book, but it has not managed to elude my regular thoughts, and for such a plain, seemingly unimposing novel without any impressive sequences of action, that should probably say more than enough.
"A Perfect Waiter" deals with a protagonist called Erneste who works as a waiter in a Swiss hotel and has obtained a reputation as being a man who quietly possesses all the qualities expected of a waiter - of a perfect waiter. He is polite and attentive, but remains withdrawn and never puts his personal affairs above his professional obligations. What seemingly nobody knows: Erneste engages himself in a love affair with another waiter, Jakob, but what feels like true, affectionate and tender love to Erneste, is nothing more than just another fling, just another love affair to Jakob.
The action lies in the protagonist's thoughts, in his recollections of the past and his observations of the present, in the quiet existence of his sorrow and solitude. In many ways, one might expect those feelings to amount to some kind of revelation, to an eruption which could mean escape from his predetermined, ordinary and repetitive everyday life. But this eruption never happens, and quietude is what the bars of his prison are made of.
The main story (told through flashbacks by Erneste) is set during the mid-1930s, a time when the revelation of Erneste's love affair would have meant his social demise, his ejectment from his work, from the people he knows, from society. He knows that well enough, and the simple knowledge of the fact that there never will be anybody he could possibly discuss the true nature of his emotional condition with causes him to feel like the loneliest person on the planet. He finds escape and distraction in his work, a profession he loves and doesn't want to lose.
And to all this, there is only one possibe solution: Erneste has no other choice but to become invisible. And as a waiter, he needs the ability to become invisible, to attend his guests' wishes without them noticing his presence. It's the perfect disguise for his fragile emotional state. After all, there is no reason to think that the wounds inflicted by love might not heal one day, or is there?
The story focuses on being a prisoner in one's profession, on being emotionally injured in an involvement of love. As a result, the two main themes of this novel are two of the things I personally fear the most, and maybe that's why this novel has touched me so profoundly. Erneste's life has been a source of inspiration, and even if this story may be fictional, there is no doubt that the emotional turmoil expressed by author Alain Claude Sulzer is one experienced by many people around the world.
This novel reveals that sometimes it's the quietness which expresses itself the loudest. I honestly have no idea of how you should define perfection in a book - but this tale about a perfect waiter is, to my perception, also a perfect novel.
"A Perfect Waiter" deals with a protagonist called Erneste who works as a waiter in a Swiss hotel and has obtained a reputation as being a man who quietly possesses all the qualities expected of a waiter - of a perfect waiter. He is polite and attentive, but remains withdrawn and never puts his personal affairs above his professional obligations. What seemingly nobody knows: Erneste engages himself in a love affair with another waiter, Jakob, but what feels like true, affectionate and tender love to Erneste, is nothing more than just another fling, just another love affair to Jakob.
The action lies in the protagonist's thoughts, in his recollections of the past and his observations of the present, in the quiet existence of his sorrow and solitude. In many ways, one might expect those feelings to amount to some kind of revelation, to an eruption which could mean escape from his predetermined, ordinary and repetitive everyday life. But this eruption never happens, and quietude is what the bars of his prison are made of.
The main story (told through flashbacks by Erneste) is set during the mid-1930s, a time when the revelation of Erneste's love affair would have meant his social demise, his ejectment from his work, from the people he knows, from society. He knows that well enough, and the simple knowledge of the fact that there never will be anybody he could possibly discuss the true nature of his emotional condition with causes him to feel like the loneliest person on the planet. He finds escape and distraction in his work, a profession he loves and doesn't want to lose.
And to all this, there is only one possibe solution: Erneste has no other choice but to become invisible. And as a waiter, he needs the ability to become invisible, to attend his guests' wishes without them noticing his presence. It's the perfect disguise for his fragile emotional state. After all, there is no reason to think that the wounds inflicted by love might not heal one day, or is there?
The story focuses on being a prisoner in one's profession, on being emotionally injured in an involvement of love. As a result, the two main themes of this novel are two of the things I personally fear the most, and maybe that's why this novel has touched me so profoundly. Erneste's life has been a source of inspiration, and even if this story may be fictional, there is no doubt that the emotional turmoil expressed by author Alain Claude Sulzer is one experienced by many people around the world.
This novel reveals that sometimes it's the quietness which expresses itself the loudest. I honestly have no idea of how you should define perfection in a book - but this tale about a perfect waiter is, to my perception, also a perfect novel.
sireno8's review
3.0
Like A PERFECT WAITER, what makes this book succeed is its attention to detail. Its the fascinating proliferation of impressions and minutae that transport the reader to the more formal time(s) of the novel and inside the head of the protagonist -- a solitary career waiter whose one time emergence from the sidelines of life is brought back into sharp relief on the receipt of a mysterious letter. Comparisons with Thomas Mann are inevitable given the book's setting and subject matter, but since Sulzer can write more explicitly than Mann could in his time, the romantic and erotic content of the novel is more potent and dangerous-feeling. This visit to their common terrain is more poignant and bittersweet than ponderous and tragic but its richness in nuance and sincerity of emotion make it equally effective.
yasha59's review against another edition
2.0
Even if the plot was interesting, it was killed by the text. The author's style is just so... boring? Idk, I nearly fell asleep two or three times.
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