A Waiter in Paris, Edward Chisholm
A Waiter in Paris, Edward Chisholm
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A Waiter in Paris
Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City

Author: Edward Chisholm

Narrator: Tristam Summers

Unabridged: 12 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/18/2023


Synopsis

An evocative portrait of the underbelly of contemporary Paris as seen through the eyes of a young waiter scraping out a living in the City of Light.

A waiter's job is to deceive you. They want you to believe in a luxurious calm because on the other side of that door . . . is hell.

Edward Chisholm's spellbinding memoir of his time as a Parisian waiter takes you beneath the surface of one of the most iconic cities in the world—and right into its glorious underbelly.

He inhabits a world of inhuman hours, snatched sleep, and dive bars; scraping by on coffee, bread, and cigarettes, often under sadistic managers, with a wage so low you're fighting your colleagues for tips. Your colleagues—including thieves, narcissists, ex-soldiers, immigrants, wannabe actors, and drug dealers—are the closest thing to family that you've got.

It's physically demanding, frequently humiliating, and incredibly competitive. But it doesn't matter because you're in Paris, the center of the universe, and there's nowhere else you'd rather be in the world.

About Edward Chisholm

Edward Chisholm was born in England and moved to Paris after graduating from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. A resident in the City of Lights for seven years, Chisholm spent the first four of them working all manner of low-paid restaurant jobs, from waiting to bartending, while trying to build a career as a writer. Now Chisholm makes a living as a freelance writer. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Financial Times magazine. He lives in England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Karolina on November 06, 2022

The publisher's marketing efforts would have you believe this to be a dry commentary on class struggle with some culinary drama in the background, but we soon find that the events of this memoir take place in 2012 (so virtually a different world to the one we live in now) and Chisholm is desperately......more

Goodreads review by Laura on October 13, 2022

This is genuinely one of the best books I’ve ever read. Paris, to a lot of us, is seen as a romantic, dreamy and luxurious place…and it is! For some. 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......more

Goodreads review by Ewan on May 14, 2022

Death of the social life, ruinous financial warfare and a genuine drive to be something are all topics contained in writer Edward Chisholm, who recounts his experiences as a runner, waiter and restaurant hand in A Waiter in Paris. It is the dying, noble profession that so many have tried to document......more

Goodreads review by Thane on November 15, 2023

English boy plays dress up as French waiter Good lord, this book could have been a 100 pages shorter. A real struggle in the middle to keep going but I did it. Hooray! The Daily Mail says “worthy of standing next to Orwell as a classic”. The only place I’d let this book stand next to me would be in a......more

Goodreads review by Mike on June 04, 2022

Covering the life of an English graduate who, after working at dead-end jobs in London, travels to Paris where his girlfriend has moved to move in with her and find employment. It doesn't work out and she returns to London leaving him without accommodation and little money. He eventually gets a job......more