Of Waiter Rant - Thanks for the Tip - Confessions of a Cynical Waiter

Excerpts from the cover;

According to The Waiter, eighty percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining twenty percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths. Waiter Rant offers the server's unique point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogant misbehavior, and unseen bits of human grace transpiring in the most unlikely places. Through outrageous stories, The Waiter reveals the secrets to getting good service, proper tipping etiquette, and how to keep him from spitting in your food. The Waiter also shares his ongoing struggle, at age thirty-eight, to figure out if he can finally leave the first job at which he's truly thrived.

I just finished the book, and personally, despite all the profanities, I like and in fact, enjoyed the book.
Ok.Fine.Most books these days, with the exception of Harry Potter and a few others, are stocked with so much profanities that you start to wonder whether you're reading the Dictionary of Swearing and Cursing; How to Verbally Abuse People In The Proper Way and Using Four Letter Curse Words.So it shouldn't really matter.

I like how the author reveals gems in the waiting industry - waiting as in serving - what things really look like from their standpoint. Some of the stories are hilarious to the point that I had to push the book aside and laughed out loud for a few minutes.Some are just downright ... depressing.While others reveal the human side of him.And the rest shows that there is still hope in this cold hard world.

It seems shocking, really ... to read of those horrendous customer experience. And though the author inserted snippets of human grace here and there, now and then ... the book for most of it feels pretty bleak. It seems like the world we are living in is indeed a harsh one.Then again, he is in New York.Pardon me.I seem to be generalizing.But personally, I have never really had a good image of New York.

Bright lights.Buzzing city.
But all smoke and fog.

I digress.

I think you can really feel that while writing this book, he is CONSTANTLY reminding himself not to be too self-absorbed ... too obnoxious ... too "I know what I am doing, so you shut up and let me do it!"
You just get the feeling that he is really trying hard to get into your good books at times ... but to his credit, I sincerely think he did a good job on balancing the line.
As described, the book is a revelation by him.It is his viewpoint and observations that we are reading.So, for the most part of it ... it is what he thinks.It is his interpretation ... his takes on the stuffs that happened.No doubt, reader may slowly feel cynical about his book.

To counter it, he acknowledges his own mistakes and his flaws.How he has made the same mistake before and why he is vulnerable to making the same mistake in the future.

I personally like a lot of the observations he revealed in the book.Though it may be his own takes on things, I find them enlightening and sometimes, shocking even.

There is this personal favorite from the book that has a line that goes ...
"People say you have to travel to see the world.Sometimes I think that if you just stay in one place and keep your eyes open, you're going to see just about all that you can handle"
I like the way he put this together and how it fits in with his story.

But more than everything, I couldn't put down the book after reading it for a few pages because you can feel the raw emotion running through it.His anger and frustation on a dysfunctional system.And his fear on his future and the stake it has.And finally, the hope he has.It seems we are all human after all.Waiter.Banker.Actuary.
*shrug*

I personally picked up some etiquette tips from the book.Hopefully I'll be a better customer next time I dine in a restaurant.

Rating: 4.5/5

Note to self: One down ... a lot more to go.