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Ein perfekter Kellner
Monsieur Erneste ist Kellner in einem Schweizer Grandhotel. Aufmerksam, unauffällig, tadellos - eben ein perfekter Kellner. In den 35 Jahren seiner Laufbahn hat er nur ein einziges Mal die Stelle gewechselt. Lediglich zwei einschneidende Ereignisse unterbrachen die Monotonie eines jahrzehntelangen Aufwartens, Auftischens, Abräumens: seine große Liebe zu dem 19jährigen Lernkellner Jakob, die nach einem Jahr des Glücks zerbrach, und die Ankunft eines Briefes aus Amerika dreißig Jahre später, der die lange Zeit dazwischen zusammenschrumpfen ließ, als seien “dreißig Jahre hingegangen wie ein Tag“. Darin bittet ihn Jakob, der ihn so schmählich verlassen hatte und einem ehemaligen Hotelgast, dem berühmten Schriftsteller Julius Klinger, als Sekretär und heimlicher Geliebter nach New York gefolgt war, um einen dreisten Gefallen.
214 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
24 people are currently reading
659 people want to read
About the author
Alain Claude Sulzer
21 books27 followersAlain's first novel was published in 1983 and he has since written four furthur novels, including Annas Maske (2001) and numerous short stories. A Perfect Waiter is his first novel to be published in English. He lives in the Alsace region of France.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
August 22, 2015
The word "invisible" kept popping into my head while reading this. Though the word wasn't used until near the end of the book, the idea of invisibility is hard to escape or ignore from the very first page. There are invisible people in the world, of course. They are the people who we see with our eyes but don't make any connection with, for whatever reason. We don't see people serving us in restaurants or hotels because they are not meant to be seen. We might give them a polite nod or a kind word or a generous tip, but we don't really see them. There are also those people that we don't want to see - the disabled, the homeless, sometimes just the different. We look at them and then just as quickly look away, they're invisible.
I myself have been invisible at times, sometimes by choice, at other times due to circumstance. I remember going from middle school to high school; I had been popular and seen up to that point in life, but suddenly all my attributes had become liabilities. I had a big personality and a bigger mouth. I reveled in attention. That all changed when my peers became sophisticated enough to realize that I was different from them. I was an effeminate boy and suddenly I was a target for scorn and violence. I no longer wanted to be seen. To deal with the situation, I did what countless gay boys have done. I forced myself to speak the way my father spoke. I monitored my walk and mannerisms. I did nothing to draw attention to myself. I became invisible.
What does all this have to do with the book? This book is about an invisible man. He chose to be invisible and he pays a high price for it. I found myself identifying with him so much that I had that terrible, wonderful reaction we sometimes get when we're really in the pages. This is a truly great novella. Highly recommended.
November 24, 2024
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.
May 13, 2021
Alain Claude Sulzer conta em dois tempos narrativos uma grande história de amor, abandono e traição amarga.
Em 1935, Erneste, o criado exemplar de um hotel suíço, encontrou-se pela primeira vez com Jakob, um jovem alemão de 19 anos, que tinha sido admitido na mesma unidade hoteleira.
Erneste ensinou-lhe todas as regras de comportamento: Jakob seria um perfeito criado de mesa.
Compartem o mesmo quarto e tornam-se amantes:
«(…) Jakob, o jovem inexperiente vindo da Alemanha, fez com a maior das despreocupações aquilo que Erneste nunca se houvera atrevido a fazer. Erneste ficar-lhe-ia eternamente grato. Jakob não temia a rejeição; como tal, deu o primeiro passo e, independentemente de saber até onde os levaria, este passo conduziu-os directamente ao paraíso.»
Mas em 1935 não era preciso perceber muito de política para compreender, adivinhar o que esperava a Alemanha se continuasse a ser governada por Hitler; inúmeros hóspedes provenientes da Alemanha chegavam ao Grande Hotel Giessbach onde aguardavam vistos para Inglaterra ou para a América.
Entre esses hóspedes encontrava-se um famoso escritor alemão, Julius Klinger - com notórias semelhanças com Thomas Mann -, a mulher e dois filhos.
Jakob parte para a América com a família Klinger como empregado e amante do escritor.
Em 1966, trinta anos depois deste acontecimento, Erneste recebe uma carta de Jakob e ficamos a conhecer o que se tinha passado durante esse longo período.
A solidão de um amor unilateral e de uma dor prolongada vivida discretamente.
«- Sim, o senhor aguenta a verdade. Como eu já disse, o senhor é um perfeito criado de mesa.»
Em 1935, Erneste, o criado exemplar de um hotel suíço, encontrou-se pela primeira vez com Jakob, um jovem alemão de 19 anos, que tinha sido admitido na mesma unidade hoteleira.
Erneste ensinou-lhe todas as regras de comportamento: Jakob seria um perfeito criado de mesa.
Compartem o mesmo quarto e tornam-se amantes:
«(…) Jakob, o jovem inexperiente vindo da Alemanha, fez com a maior das despreocupações aquilo que Erneste nunca se houvera atrevido a fazer. Erneste ficar-lhe-ia eternamente grato. Jakob não temia a rejeição; como tal, deu o primeiro passo e, independentemente de saber até onde os levaria, este passo conduziu-os directamente ao paraíso.»
Mas em 1935 não era preciso perceber muito de política para compreender, adivinhar o que esperava a Alemanha se continuasse a ser governada por Hitler; inúmeros hóspedes provenientes da Alemanha chegavam ao Grande Hotel Giessbach onde aguardavam vistos para Inglaterra ou para a América.
Entre esses hóspedes encontrava-se um famoso escritor alemão, Julius Klinger - com notórias semelhanças com Thomas Mann -, a mulher e dois filhos.
Jakob parte para a América com a família Klinger como empregado e amante do escritor.
Em 1966, trinta anos depois deste acontecimento, Erneste recebe uma carta de Jakob e ficamos a conhecer o que se tinha passado durante esse longo período.
A solidão de um amor unilateral e de uma dor prolongada vivida discretamente.
«- Sim, o senhor aguenta a verdade. Como eu já disse, o senhor é um perfeito criado de mesa.»
October 29, 2012
This understated novel struck me as in a style very similar to Anita Brookner or Kazuo Ishiguro. The quiet angst and misery never amounted to a scream of frustration or echoing despair on the part of Erneste the ' hero ' of the story as this would not have been in keeping with his genteel self control but it is a tragic story told through flashback of his first and indeed only love affair with a fellow waiter called Jacob and reflection on his present state of loneliness engendered by Jacob's betrayal of this adoration with a guest with whom he left.
The re-opening of this perceived healed wound or maybe even the re-opening of a wedged closed closet comes about as a result of a letter, out of the blue 30 years after the end of this affair, from Jacob asking for help from Erneste.
The story is that of unfulfilled hopes and of innocence betrayed and the style of the narration is perfectly pitched. Erneste lives quietly, unobtrusively and seemingly permanently half alive. Sulzer, perhaps a little too heavy handed in the obvious nature of the symbol, uses a half opened cupboard in 1960's Erneste's bedroom which he hates to see fully closed but is unnerved by it when open to reflect upon the man's inability or unwillingness to make a decision one way or the other about his own self but it is there that you encounter Jacob's insidious affect. His betrayal perhaps seals the future in such a way that Erneste cannot think of himself as worthy of anything more than lost dreams or memories which sweep over him.
It is very powerful in its controlled emotion which makes the account of Erneste watching Jacob undress and get measured for his uniform as a waiter all the more seductive in its simplicity. Tragic and understated ought to seem odd bedfellows since normally tragic might demand more forthright prose but i think it is the very lack of powered emotion which oddly fuels the sadness.
The re-opening of this perceived healed wound or maybe even the re-opening of a wedged closed closet comes about as a result of a letter, out of the blue 30 years after the end of this affair, from Jacob asking for help from Erneste.
The story is that of unfulfilled hopes and of innocence betrayed and the style of the narration is perfectly pitched. Erneste lives quietly, unobtrusively and seemingly permanently half alive. Sulzer, perhaps a little too heavy handed in the obvious nature of the symbol, uses a half opened cupboard in 1960's Erneste's bedroom which he hates to see fully closed but is unnerved by it when open to reflect upon the man's inability or unwillingness to make a decision one way or the other about his own self but it is there that you encounter Jacob's insidious affect. His betrayal perhaps seals the future in such a way that Erneste cannot think of himself as worthy of anything more than lost dreams or memories which sweep over him.
It is very powerful in its controlled emotion which makes the account of Erneste watching Jacob undress and get measured for his uniform as a waiter all the more seductive in its simplicity. Tragic and understated ought to seem odd bedfellows since normally tragic might demand more forthright prose but i think it is the very lack of powered emotion which oddly fuels the sadness.
August 3, 2019
A Perfect Waiter grows out a simple conceit: Erneste is a waiter, master of the Blue Room at the Restaurant am Berg. He has waited for thirty years for news of his first lover, Jakob, and a letter from Jakob (out of the blue) sets his life spinning. This crafted novella is about waiting, the personal and the political: Erneste, like many at the Switzerland restaurant, waits for ominous developments in 1936 Germany to show their shadow.
Waiting and its English associations are not present in the original German of Sulzer. Ein perfekter Kellner Here, kellner, servant, sets up a different set of related concerns. What does it mean to serve? Erneste's character is absorbed into passivity and servitude. Love makes him a servant of Jakob's needs. The concept of serving the State and absorbing its prejudices affect Jakob. And the centre of the novel, the loss of Jakob to the imperial writer Julius Klinger, a master of words and sound, is focused on how Eros commands his servants to behave.
Ultimately the two lines of thought converge: it is our human ability to wait and keep ourselves in check that allows us to serve-- especially when we become servants of memory.
And this is a brilliantly written novel about memory. The novel spans thirty years, from 1936, when Erneste was in his early twenties and 1966, when Erneste is in his early fifties. Erneste, in many ways, has remained the perfect boy, drawn deeper, as a waiter must, into anonymity and self-effacement, until the point comes when he must face the mirror and the present. It is this that brings a startling denouement into view. Written mainly in the voice of the omniscient narrator, speech is scarce, which will irritate some readers as characters do not exist autonomously. This style, however, fits the story as well as Jakob's waiter's suit (a passage of terrifyingly restrained sensuality in the novel) for it constructs Erneste's world exactly: a world accustomed to hiding, suffocation and interiority. And it adds contrast to the moments when speech and desire burst out, to the Mann-like colourful existence of Klinger.
Like Mann's Felix Krull, Jakob is a Hermetic character moving between light and dark that sets terrible forces into play. A Perfect Waiter, which won the Prix Medicis Etranger in 2008, is a finely plotted novel and a perfect psychological study of humanity's imperfect desires.
Waiting and its English associations are not present in the original German of Sulzer. Ein perfekter Kellner Here, kellner, servant, sets up a different set of related concerns. What does it mean to serve? Erneste's character is absorbed into passivity and servitude. Love makes him a servant of Jakob's needs. The concept of serving the State and absorbing its prejudices affect Jakob. And the centre of the novel, the loss of Jakob to the imperial writer Julius Klinger, a master of words and sound, is focused on how Eros commands his servants to behave.
Ultimately the two lines of thought converge: it is our human ability to wait and keep ourselves in check that allows us to serve-- especially when we become servants of memory.
And this is a brilliantly written novel about memory. The novel spans thirty years, from 1936, when Erneste was in his early twenties and 1966, when Erneste is in his early fifties. Erneste, in many ways, has remained the perfect boy, drawn deeper, as a waiter must, into anonymity and self-effacement, until the point comes when he must face the mirror and the present. It is this that brings a startling denouement into view. Written mainly in the voice of the omniscient narrator, speech is scarce, which will irritate some readers as characters do not exist autonomously. This style, however, fits the story as well as Jakob's waiter's suit (a passage of terrifyingly restrained sensuality in the novel) for it constructs Erneste's world exactly: a world accustomed to hiding, suffocation and interiority. And it adds contrast to the moments when speech and desire burst out, to the Mann-like colourful existence of Klinger.
Like Mann's Felix Krull, Jakob is a Hermetic character moving between light and dark that sets terrible forces into play. A Perfect Waiter, which won the Prix Medicis Etranger in 2008, is a finely plotted novel and a perfect psychological study of humanity's imperfect desires.
November 27, 2009
Tired of waiting for the next great literary novel? Rejoice, the wait is over; The Perfect Waiter is a gorgeous prose piece, not unlike The Remains of the Day or The Hours, which tells a haunting story in flashback sequences and images both languid and indelible.
Set in Switzerland circa 1935 and 1966, the protagonist is Erneste, a consummate waiter at an elegant restaurant, who has surrendered himself to a solitary life of subservience and service; content now with only memories of an idyllic pre-war romance with a handsome youth named Jakob.
The reverie of the young lovers was shattered by the arrival of Julius Klinger, a famous writer (patterned after Thomas Mann) infatuated with the increasingly duplicitous Jakob, ultimately luring him away with promises of security and a new life in America.
In 1966 Erneste’s perfectly ordered and appointed existence is disrupted when letters arrive from Jakob in America, beseeching him to see the now elderly writer and beg him for financial assistance. The events that follow are revelatory; filled with secrets, recriminations and the expression of frustrated emotions. However, it’s the quiet moments which sing the loudest, internalized melodies of passion and rapture and sorrow and bitter misunderstanding. Sulzer creates a stunning tapestry of scenes; A Perfect Waiter is multilayered, erotic and suspenseful, violent and heartrending. A perfect novel.
Set in Switzerland circa 1935 and 1966, the protagonist is Erneste, a consummate waiter at an elegant restaurant, who has surrendered himself to a solitary life of subservience and service; content now with only memories of an idyllic pre-war romance with a handsome youth named Jakob.
The reverie of the young lovers was shattered by the arrival of Julius Klinger, a famous writer (patterned after Thomas Mann) infatuated with the increasingly duplicitous Jakob, ultimately luring him away with promises of security and a new life in America.
In 1966 Erneste’s perfectly ordered and appointed existence is disrupted when letters arrive from Jakob in America, beseeching him to see the now elderly writer and beg him for financial assistance. The events that follow are revelatory; filled with secrets, recriminations and the expression of frustrated emotions. However, it’s the quiet moments which sing the loudest, internalized melodies of passion and rapture and sorrow and bitter misunderstanding. Sulzer creates a stunning tapestry of scenes; A Perfect Waiter is multilayered, erotic and suspenseful, violent and heartrending. A perfect novel.
August 21, 2025
This sexy Perfect Waiter was the perfect companion for my trip to Switzerland, a grand hotel there the main setting for this politely gay old fashioned love story.
November 10, 2014
Beautiful and understated writing has produced a little masterpiece. Erneste is a waiter at a hotel in Switzerland in 1936, when he meets and falls in love with new employee Jakob. 30 years later he receives a letter from Jakob, and memories of this time come flooding back, bringing with them an unsettling feeling that all is not well now, or was then. Jakob is in trouble and is in need of Erneste to either send him money or contact a former guest of the hotel, world renowned writer Julius Klinger. Erneste is not eager to do either, but will his essential good nature overcome his feelings of betrayal by Jakob?
Needless to say there is also a certain amount of tension that pervades the writing, and begins to build as Erneste makes his decision and the facts of the past are revealed to us. Earlier on there is a sublime scene when Jakob is measured for his outfit by Frau Adamowicz, and it is almost as though we are there in the room, observing with Erneste as the hotel outfitter works around Jakob's body, described with a sensuality and subtlty that is quite breathtaking. A lovely book.
Needless to say there is also a certain amount of tension that pervades the writing, and begins to build as Erneste makes his decision and the facts of the past are revealed to us. Earlier on there is a sublime scene when Jakob is measured for his outfit by Frau Adamowicz, and it is almost as though we are there in the room, observing with Erneste as the hotel outfitter works around Jakob's body, described with a sensuality and subtlty that is quite breathtaking. A lovely book.
March 22, 2025
Грешките в тази книга са в пъти повече от местата, които ме впечатлиха. Всъщност те са толкова много, че е невъзможно човек да се съсредоточи в текста (който често изглежда като минал през Гугъл транслейт).
Не само странно, но и недопустимо е преводачът, който се води и езиковед, работещ в Института по български език към БАН, да не знае къде се поставят запетаи, да изписва наречието "навреме" разделено или "да сложиш нещо ВРЕД" заедно и учтивата форма с малка буква (вие). За безобразния на моменти словоред не ми се коментира, но компотът от времена е потресаващ: "...наведе очи, лапва хапка и отпи от кафето". Изреченията в цял абзац изглеждат така.
Господинът явно е бил на някаква убийствена диета, защото освен запетаите, е изял и доста букви, та се налага гадаене за какво иде реч (подължи, бувки, чака).
Едно и също име в съседни изречения е изписано различно (Клингер/Крингер); често има грешни и разменени букви (шивалнята се наБираше наблизо, миришеше на поБърнато, обкръжЕИне).
И на мен жестоко ми се допоБръща от тази книга и я изчетох на инат до края, само за да видя колко още може да копае дъното.
Всъщност това не е книга, а грозна обида към читателя - първо от немарливия преводач и после от издателството, спестило си редактор и коректор.
Не само странно, но и недопустимо е преводачът, който се води и езиковед, работещ в Института по български език към БАН, да не знае къде се поставят запетаи, да изписва наречието "навреме" разделено или "да сложиш нещо ВРЕД" заедно и учтивата форма с малка буква (вие). За безобразния на моменти словоред не ми се коментира, но компотът от времена е потресаващ: "...наведе очи, лапва хапка и отпи от кафето". Изреченията в цял абзац изглеждат така.
Господинът явно е бил на някаква убийствена диета, защото освен запетаите, е изял и доста букви, та се налага гадаене за какво иде реч (подължи, бувки, чака).
Едно и също име в съседни изречения е изписано различно (Клингер/Крингер); често има грешни и разменени букви (шивалнята се наБираше наблизо, миришеше на поБърнато, обкръжЕИне).
И на мен жестоко ми се допоБръща от тази книга и я изчетох на инат до края, само за да видя колко още може да копае дъното.
Всъщност това не е книга, а грозна обида към читателя - първо от немарливия преводач и после от издателството, спестило си редактор и коректор.
July 23, 2024
J’ai bien aimé l’histoire, elle était triste comme je m’y attendais.
Le livre est court et bien rythmé, par contre il contient beaucoup trop de descriptions et de répétitions pour moi, ça a rendu le style lourd à mes yeux.
Le personnage principal et le narrateur de l’histoire, Ernest, est plutôt introverti alors c’était facile pour moi de m’attacher à lui. L’histoire d’amour qu’il a eu avec Jacob était mignonne jusqu’à ce qu’un troisième personnage entre en jeux. À partir de là, j’ai commencé à décrocher de l’histoire.
Tout cela me fait dire que je ne recommande pas forcément ce roman, je pense qu’il y a mieux ailleurs.
Le livre est court et bien rythmé, par contre il contient beaucoup trop de descriptions et de répétitions pour moi, ça a rendu le style lourd à mes yeux.
Le personnage principal et le narrateur de l’histoire, Ernest, est plutôt introverti alors c’était facile pour moi de m’attacher à lui. L’histoire d’amour qu’il a eu avec Jacob était mignonne jusqu’à ce qu’un troisième personnage entre en jeux. À partir de là, j’ai commencé à décrocher de l’histoire.
Tout cela me fait dire que je ne recommande pas forcément ce roman, je pense qu’il y a mieux ailleurs.
January 23, 2015
Sulzer succeeds in bringing dramatic intensity to the inner life of Erneste, the perfect waiter of the title, in spite of the fact that the man is also a perfect non-entity in almost every way: no books, no politics, no friends, no interests, no ideas.
The only significant thing that's ever happened in this desert of a life is his passionate love affair with another young man, Jakob, in the years before World War II, and it's the betrayal of his love that shrivels any possibilities for a less dessicated life over the next 30 years.
Klinger, the older man for whom Jakob leaves Erneste, is a German literary icon clearly meant to bring to mind Thomas Mann (Switzerland, New York, Los Angeles, the homosexual son and bisexual daughter) though just as clearly not meant literally to be Mann. Erneste's meeting with Klinger 30 years after he last saw Jakob reveals betrayals greater than the first and the profound sadnesses that almost inevitably pervaded the lives of so many in the oppressive atmosphere of those times.
The only significant thing that's ever happened in this desert of a life is his passionate love affair with another young man, Jakob, in the years before World War II, and it's the betrayal of his love that shrivels any possibilities for a less dessicated life over the next 30 years.
Klinger, the older man for whom Jakob leaves Erneste, is a German literary icon clearly meant to bring to mind Thomas Mann (Switzerland, New York, Los Angeles, the homosexual son and bisexual daughter) though just as clearly not meant literally to be Mann. Erneste's meeting with Klinger 30 years after he last saw Jakob reveals betrayals greater than the first and the profound sadnesses that almost inevitably pervaded the lives of so many in the oppressive atmosphere of those times.
February 28, 2023
This is my second reading of this very fine, beautiful and moving novel. I see no need to repeat what the story of the novel is, it is quite adequately related in the Goodreads synopsis and touched in many reviews. In fact all my attempts to define or explain why I admire this novel so highly read reductive and inadequate so I strongly recommend reading the review of Andrew Howdle posted August 9, 2019 and currently (amongst the first ten reviews on Goodreads - 28/02/2023) because his has read the novel in German* so brings out added depths that are not apparent in English between the motifs of waiting, service and memory. It is a very fine review - far better then anything I have or will say about this novel except my recommendation to read this very wonderful novel.
*In the unlikely event that anyone wonders why this novel is not shelved under German literature it is because if I were to do so to be consistent I would have to shelve, for example Irish authors such as Yeats, Wilde, Synge, Joyce, etc. under English literature which would be absurd.
*In the unlikely event that anyone wonders why this novel is not shelved under German literature it is because if I were to do so to be consistent I would have to shelve, for example Irish authors such as Yeats, Wilde, Synge, Joyce, etc. under English literature which would be absurd.
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February 7, 2017Uma excelente surpresa esta minha estreia na obra deste autor suíço.
Alain Claude Sulzer surpreende com esta sua narrativa em que a história que conta vai sendo mostrada em dois períodos diferentes - 1936, antes da II GG, e trinta anos depois.
Esses períodos vão sendo intercalados e a acção que parece linear não é tanto assim, e só mesmo no final é que tudo se fica a saber sobre a personagem de Jakob, e sobre os seus envolvimentos com os restantes personagens, incluindo o narrador, Ernest, o criado exemplar.
É um livro que nos envolve de tal forma que ansiamos por ler sempre mais uma página...
E que mais podemos desejar de um livro senão isso.
Alain Claude Sulzer surpreende com esta sua narrativa em que a história que conta vai sendo mostrada em dois períodos diferentes - 1936, antes da II GG, e trinta anos depois.
Esses períodos vão sendo intercalados e a acção que parece linear não é tanto assim, e só mesmo no final é que tudo se fica a saber sobre a personagem de Jakob, e sobre os seus envolvimentos com os restantes personagens, incluindo o narrador, Ernest, o criado exemplar.
É um livro que nos envolve de tal forma que ansiamos por ler sempre mais uma página...
E que mais podemos desejar de um livro senão isso.
August 9, 2022
From Publishers’ Weekly: “In Alsace-based Sulzer’s first translated novel, set in 1966 Switzerland, self-possessed, middle-aged Erneste is the rock of the Restaurant am Berg, working the lavish Blue Room without missing a shift in 16 years. A letter posted from New York threatens to shatter the orderly cocoon he’s built around himself.” The letter comes from an old love named Jakob, having relocated to the United States, and it is asking Erneste to do Jakob the favor of interceding with Julius Klinger who ostensibly came between the two young lovers many years ago and getting him to send money urgently to protect Jakob from being prosecuted for his ‘crime against nature,’ by investigators from the FBI or some such agency There is a lot more to be learned from this strange request, but things only become clearer near the end of the story. As this is only the first novel of this author’s to be translated into English and he has written several, I do look forward to reading more if I could be assured of such a deft translation. A melancholy and memorable work that is highly recommended.
March 25, 2016
Me ha dejado con un sabor diferente. No es una novela que me haya sorprendido, ni que me haya contado nada nuevo. La historia no es mala, pero pensé que me sorprendería más.
Gracias, Janell, fue un lindo detalle que pensarás que la novela me gustaría.
A favor, la prosa es muy buena; me encanta que me cuenten la historia en dos tiempos distintos y siempre estoy a favor de más libros con esta temática.
Gracias, Janell, fue un lindo detalle que pensarás que la novela me gustaría.
A favor, la prosa es muy buena; me encanta que me cuenten la historia en dos tiempos distintos y siempre estoy a favor de más libros con esta temática.
May 21, 2017
This was supposed to go under the "LGBT Romance" item for the Read Harder challenge, but I really don't think I can classify this as a romance. But also, if I can't, I dragged myself through it for nothing. Catch-22. Ugh.
I honestly don't know why I was supposed to care about any of it.
I honestly don't know why I was supposed to care about any of it.
December 30, 2024
The role of a waiter is to perform unseen, to serve people and, barring the occasional nod or small talk, to be both discrete and unmemorable. They must give nothing of themselves away while attending to those they assist. One who exemplifies this can be the perfect waiter of the title in Alain Claude Sulzer’s novel, A Perfect Waiter (2004, tr: John Brownjohn, 2008). In this instance, it’s Erneste, the embodiment of order and restraint, in both his professional and private lives.
Set in both 1930s and 1960s Switzerland, at a grand hotel, the book sees its later period shattered by the arrival of a letter from America harking back to the earlier time. The letter is from Jakob, a German man whom Erneste had, when they were in their early twenties, trained, shared a room with, and experienced his only true love. This at a time where the consequences of their relationship would have been disastrous.
But what is love for one person is but an indulgence for another as a sort of love triangle develops with the arrival of a well-to-do guest. Julius Klinger is a writer of great repute, tipped for the Nobel, and effectively a veiled Thomas Mann, who made a similar exodus with his family to Switzerland and then to America, escaping the increasingly perilous nature over the border in the Third Reich. Erneste’s life is shattered when he catches them in flagrante delicto.
As the titular waiter, Erneste embodies the many themes that swirl around in the novel’s two periods. By making himself vacant to those he serves, we see the effects of loneliness and keeping one’s identity hidden away. At a time where his homosexuality would be harshly condemned, his professional invisibility becomes a sad mirror of his own shattered hopes for sexual liberation. But with the addition of Klinger, the flirtation of class and power compound Erneste’s quiet agony as his lover’s attention shifts upward rather than remaining with his equal.
Sulzer’s prose is calm and meticulous, like his waiter, expertly guiding us back and forward between the two crucial decades. Though the narrator is omniscient, there’s something of the reserve and repression of Ishiguro’s Stevens (The Remains of the Day, 1989). It has plenty of memorable set pieces, such as the Erneste’s voyeuristic approach to Jakob being measured for his uniform or their first sexual encounter. But also more grim moments as queer-bashers exercise vigilantism and one character takes their life.
With the Mann-like figure of Klinger, and his interest in Jakob’s handsome youth, it’s easy to view him, in reference to Mann’s Death in Venice (1912), as a Tadzio, the object of infatuation for a writer and the unspoken passion of Erneste. At the start of the book, when Jakob’s letter arrives, Sulzer gives us this passage:
“The past was locked away in his abundant recollections of Jakob like something inside a dark closet. The past was precious, but the closet remained unopened.”
That Erneste is unable to leave his past, or be himself is the novel’s core tragedy in a book replete with them. The journey from idealistic and professional twenty-something to middle-aged standard-bearer of lost time and regret is complete. But the perfect waiter handles this by remaining invisible, a shadow passing through life, serving the world unnoticed, and the importance of being Erneste is quietly lost.
Set in both 1930s and 1960s Switzerland, at a grand hotel, the book sees its later period shattered by the arrival of a letter from America harking back to the earlier time. The letter is from Jakob, a German man whom Erneste had, when they were in their early twenties, trained, shared a room with, and experienced his only true love. This at a time where the consequences of their relationship would have been disastrous.
But what is love for one person is but an indulgence for another as a sort of love triangle develops with the arrival of a well-to-do guest. Julius Klinger is a writer of great repute, tipped for the Nobel, and effectively a veiled Thomas Mann, who made a similar exodus with his family to Switzerland and then to America, escaping the increasingly perilous nature over the border in the Third Reich. Erneste’s life is shattered when he catches them in flagrante delicto.
As the titular waiter, Erneste embodies the many themes that swirl around in the novel’s two periods. By making himself vacant to those he serves, we see the effects of loneliness and keeping one’s identity hidden away. At a time where his homosexuality would be harshly condemned, his professional invisibility becomes a sad mirror of his own shattered hopes for sexual liberation. But with the addition of Klinger, the flirtation of class and power compound Erneste’s quiet agony as his lover’s attention shifts upward rather than remaining with his equal.
Sulzer’s prose is calm and meticulous, like his waiter, expertly guiding us back and forward between the two crucial decades. Though the narrator is omniscient, there’s something of the reserve and repression of Ishiguro’s Stevens (The Remains of the Day, 1989). It has plenty of memorable set pieces, such as the Erneste’s voyeuristic approach to Jakob being measured for his uniform or their first sexual encounter. But also more grim moments as queer-bashers exercise vigilantism and one character takes their life.
With the Mann-like figure of Klinger, and his interest in Jakob’s handsome youth, it’s easy to view him, in reference to Mann’s Death in Venice (1912), as a Tadzio, the object of infatuation for a writer and the unspoken passion of Erneste. At the start of the book, when Jakob’s letter arrives, Sulzer gives us this passage:
“The past was locked away in his abundant recollections of Jakob like something inside a dark closet. The past was precious, but the closet remained unopened.”
That Erneste is unable to leave his past, or be himself is the novel’s core tragedy in a book replete with them. The journey from idealistic and professional twenty-something to middle-aged standard-bearer of lost time and regret is complete. But the perfect waiter handles this by remaining invisible, a shadow passing through life, serving the world unnoticed, and the importance of being Erneste is quietly lost.
July 28, 2024
Jedno z moich największych pozytywnych zaskoczeń. I chodzi nie tylko o okładkę, która wygląda jak wprost z pornola - choć ja nie zwróciłam na to uwagi, gdy po nią sięgnęłam, myślałam, że to jakieś ciemne plamy 😭 (mam słaby wzrok i tylko rzuciłam okiem przed przeczytaniem opisu). Zaskoczył mnie niesamowity styl pisania, przewrotność opisywanych wydarzeń, znajomość ludzkiej natury płynąca z narracji i wrażliwość, z jaką opisane były przeżycia bohaterów.
"Kelner doskonały" to historia Ernesta - mężczyzny, który jako młodzieniec uciekł z Alzacji i zatrudnił się w szwajcarskim hotelu. Tam stał się kelnerem doskonałym: oddanemu pracy, z perfekcyjnymi manierami, zapamiętującym przyzwyczajenia gości i nie mieszającemu się w ich życia. Tam poznaje również miłość swojego życia - Jakuba Meiera, Niemca o pięknej aparycji, zdobywającego popularność wśród gości. Ich romans płonie gorącym płomieniem, ich bliskość jest niemal namacalna, a opis uczuć Ernesta - boleśnie piękny.
Pewnego dnia jednak Jakub wyjeżdża do Ameryki i nie odzywa się przez ponad trzydzieści lat. Ernest zatapia się w pracy, ucieka od bólu i przykrych wspomnień, gubi tożsamość, by być tylko kelnerem. Aż do momentu, w którym po 33 latach od rozstania dostaje list od Jakuba, a wspomnienia nie dają się dalej tłamsić.
Narracja przeplata wspomnienia z teraz i z kiedyś. Trzymając w dłoniach list od Jakoba Ernest rozpamiętuje dni poprzedzające jego przyjazd i początki ich relacji. Otwierając list, myśli o tym, jak ta relacja się zamknęła. Czytając nowe słowa naskrobane na papierze, rozmyśla o tych, które wymienił z Jakobem, i tych, których nigdy nie wypowiedział.
Jest to świetnie napisana książka, a najlepiej poznawać ją tak, jak opisuje ją Sulzer.
"Kelner doskonały" to historia Ernesta - mężczyzny, który jako młodzieniec uciekł z Alzacji i zatrudnił się w szwajcarskim hotelu. Tam stał się kelnerem doskonałym: oddanemu pracy, z perfekcyjnymi manierami, zapamiętującym przyzwyczajenia gości i nie mieszającemu się w ich życia. Tam poznaje również miłość swojego życia - Jakuba Meiera, Niemca o pięknej aparycji, zdobywającego popularność wśród gości. Ich romans płonie gorącym płomieniem, ich bliskość jest niemal namacalna, a opis uczuć Ernesta - boleśnie piękny.
Pewnego dnia jednak Jakub wyjeżdża do Ameryki i nie odzywa się przez ponad trzydzieści lat. Ernest zatapia się w pracy, ucieka od bólu i przykrych wspomnień, gubi tożsamość, by być tylko kelnerem. Aż do momentu, w którym po 33 latach od rozstania dostaje list od Jakuba, a wspomnienia nie dają się dalej tłamsić.
Narracja przeplata wspomnienia z teraz i z kiedyś. Trzymając w dłoniach list od Jakoba Ernest rozpamiętuje dni poprzedzające jego przyjazd i początki ich relacji. Otwierając list, myśli o tym, jak ta relacja się zamknęła. Czytając nowe słowa naskrobane na papierze, rozmyśla o tych, które wymienił z Jakobem, i tych, których nigdy nie wypowiedział.
Jest to świetnie napisana książka, a najlepiej poznawać ją tak, jak opisuje ją Sulzer.
July 26, 2023
"Jakob nutzte seine Stärke, meine Schwäche, gründlich aus, immer zu seinen Gunsten. Ich war der lächerliche Alte, er die leuchtende Jugend. Er war schön, und er besass die Fähigkeit, seine Schönheit einzusetzen, es gelang ihm sogar, sie im Laufe der Zeit noch zu verfeinern. Sie kannten ihn, und Sie verstehen sicher, was ich damit meine. Ich weiss bis heute nicht, wie er das machte, seine Schönheit schien sich zu dehnen. Er war im Besitz genau jener Droge, die ich täglich brauchte, auf die ich nicht verzichten konnte, ich war gezwungen, sie ihm abzukaufen, denn ich konnte ohne sie nicht leben. So hielt er mich gefangen und reizte und erregte mich, und erst wenn ich ihn besessen hatte, war ich ruhig - und erst recht in seiner Hand."
June 25, 2024
Από τα βιβλία που ήξερα από το τέλος του πρώτου κεφαλαίου πως θα του έβαζα πέντε αστέρια. Κρίμα που δεν είναι περισσότερο γνωστός ο συγγραφέας του και δεν μεταφράστηκαν άλλα έργα του!
Τα είχε όλα, τη νοσταλγία της προπολεμικής ατμόσφαιρας, την πλοκή σε δύο διαφορετικά χρονικά πλαίσια που όλο αλληλεπιδρούσαν μεταξύ τους, τη δράση και την ανατροπή (που προς το τέλος έγινε σχεδόν αβάσταχτη και σοκαριστική!), τον πόλεμο, τη φτώχεια, τους μοναχικούς αληθοφανείς χαρακτήρες, την όμορφη γραφή, το κρυφό γκέυ στοιχείο με όλα τα στραβά του και τη θεοποίηση των νιάτων και της αρρενωπότητας και της τυφλής μονόπλευρης αγάπης, την οικονομία των μόλις 200 σελίδων.
Πολύ όμορφη έκδοση και μετάφραση. Μακάρι να επανεκδοθεί.
Τα είχε όλα, τη νοσταλγία της προπολεμικής ατμόσφαιρας, την πλοκή σε δύο διαφορετικά χρονικά πλαίσια που όλο αλληλεπιδρούσαν μεταξύ τους, τη δράση και την ανατροπή (που προς το τέλος έγινε σχεδόν αβάσταχτη και σοκαριστική!), τον πόλεμο, τη φτώχεια, τους μοναχικούς αληθοφανείς χαρακτήρες, την όμορφη γραφή, το κρυφό γκέυ στοιχείο με όλα τα στραβά του και τη θεοποίηση των νιάτων και της αρρενωπότητας και της τυφλής μονόπλευρης αγάπης, την οικονομία των μόλις 200 σελίδων.
Πολύ όμορφη έκδοση και μετάφραση. Μακάρι να επανεκδοθεί.
December 15, 2019
Oczywiście jak zwykle ,nie przeczytałam żadnych recenzji ani opisu z tyłu książki,zasugerowałam się okładką i tytułem ;-) .
Okazało się że znów dostałam coś innego niż się spodziewałam .
Erneste kelner pracujący w restauracji ekskluzywnego hotelu dostaje list od swojego przyjaciela-kochanka ,z którym nie miał kontaktu od prawie 30 lat.
Powracają wspomnienia w międzyczasie przeplatane teraźniejszością .
Dla mnie dużym plusem w tej książce jest to że nie ma tu opisów scen erotycznych między mężczyznami.
Na 175 stronach książki nie ma ani jednego dialogu,to tak jakby ktoś opowiadał nam dłuższą historię .
Okazało się że znów dostałam coś innego niż się spodziewałam .
Erneste kelner pracujący w restauracji ekskluzywnego hotelu dostaje list od swojego przyjaciela-kochanka ,z którym nie miał kontaktu od prawie 30 lat.
Powracają wspomnienia w międzyczasie przeplatane teraźniejszością .
Dla mnie dużym plusem w tej książce jest to że nie ma tu opisów scen erotycznych między mężczyznami.
Na 175 stronach książki nie ma ani jednego dialogu,to tak jakby ktoś opowiadał nam dłuższą historię .
January 27, 2019
Een belangrijk deel van het verhaal speelt zich af een paar jaar voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog, in Zwitserland. De jonge Erneste is kelner in een Grand Hotel in Giessbach en wordt verliefd op Jakob, die het vak nog moet leren. Maar het boek begint 30 jaar later als Erneste een brief van Jakob uit Amerika ontvangt met een opmerkelijk verzoek. Het merkwaardige is dat ze elkaar al sinds 1936 niet meer hebben gezien!
Aardig verhaal, spannend eind.
De scene waar de maten van Jakob worden opgenomen voor het vermaken van zijn kostuum vond ik bijzonder sensueel. Voor het overige is de schrijfstijl niet heel bijzonder. En het duurt tot de helft van het boek voordat het verhaal echt gaat leven. Grand Hotel Giessbach is geen Grand Hotel Europa zal ik maar zeggen.
Zelf mijd ik altijd de tekst achterop het boek. Zeker in dit geval wordt er veel te veel van de verhaallijn weggegeven!
Aardig verhaal, spannend eind.
De scene waar de maten van Jakob worden opgenomen voor het vermaken van zijn kostuum vond ik bijzonder sensueel. Voor het overige is de schrijfstijl niet heel bijzonder. En het duurt tot de helft van het boek voordat het verhaal echt gaat leven. Grand Hotel Giessbach is geen Grand Hotel Europa zal ik maar zeggen.
Zelf mijd ik altijd de tekst achterop het boek. Zeker in dit geval wordt er veel te veel van de verhaallijn weggegeven!
June 19, 2019
"Hän ei olisi voinut yllättyä mistään niin paljon kuin tuosta uskaliaasta hyökkäyksestä, mikään ei olisi voinut tehdä häntä onnellisemmaksi kuin tuo hänen hartaimman toiveensa täyttyminen."
Kirjailija satuttaa lukijaa taidokkaalla kielellä ja viiltävän surullisella tyylillään. Ernesten tunteet valuvat kirjan sivuilta lukijaan, ja riemu, rakkaus, kipu ja tuska ovat koko ajan läsnä. Kolmen vuosikymmenen paino tuntuu harteilla ja saa kyyneleet valumaan poskille.
Kauniisti kirjoitettu kirja, joka herättää ilon, katkeruuden ja surun tunteita. Suljettuani kirjan oloni oli tyhjä, ja samaan aikaan niin raskas. Niin paljon jäi kertomatta, niin paljon kerrottiin.
Ajatukset viipyilevät 30-luvun Sveitsissä ja viimeisissä kirjeissä ja palaan jatkuvasti miettimään, entä jos...
Kirjailija satuttaa lukijaa taidokkaalla kielellä ja viiltävän surullisella tyylillään. Ernesten tunteet valuvat kirjan sivuilta lukijaan, ja riemu, rakkaus, kipu ja tuska ovat koko ajan läsnä. Kolmen vuosikymmenen paino tuntuu harteilla ja saa kyyneleet valumaan poskille.
Kauniisti kirjoitettu kirja, joka herättää ilon, katkeruuden ja surun tunteita. Suljettuani kirjan oloni oli tyhjä, ja samaan aikaan niin raskas. Niin paljon jäi kertomatta, niin paljon kerrottiin.
Ajatukset viipyilevät 30-luvun Sveitsissä ja viimeisissä kirjeissä ja palaan jatkuvasti miettimään, entä jos...
June 9, 2010
The main action starts on the first page – a letter arrives from America and we are told that it’s from a man that Erneste knew 30 years before – and that person is someone who Erneste has thought of daily for every day of those 30 years. It’s clear fairly soon that Erneste is repressed in every facet of his life. He works diligently and perfectly; he has no friends and no acquaintance aside from one cousin who he sees once a year. Soon we slide into flashback and we are in a pre-war summer in “The Grand Hotel” on a Swiss lake. Erneste is sent down to the lakeside to meet a new member of staff – Jakob, trainee waiter – and from the very moment they shake hands, Erneste knows his life will never be the same again.
We are left in no doubt of Erneste’s love – at first, helpless, hopeless passion. He is content, happy to take the handsome 19 year old German under his wing and to teach him to be – as he is himself – the perfect waiter. We are convinced of his devotion, a high church kind of devotion that makes him proud just to be called Jakob’s friend and he is convinced that everyone who sees Jakob must be jealous that he, Erneste is his friend, and not they. One of the most touching and erotic scenes is when Jakob goes to be fitted for his uniform. The seamstress measures Jakob, her hands travelling over every part of Jabob’s body and Erneste sits and watches, his hands are her hands imagining every muscle, every hair. When Jakob strips down to his underwear – the seamstresses all turn away and Erneste is almost gleeful that as a man there is nothing out of the oridinary for a man to watch another in this act.
Two months into their friendship Jakob instigates a kiss and their friendship turns to the physical. Erneste and Jakob live, love and work in the hotel and Erneste – having no discernible personality of his own, is subsumed by Jakob.
However, it’s fairly obvious by the information at the beginning of the book that this love-affair didn’t last and as the book slides from past to present and back again we are shown why and how and if Erneste’s heart doesn’t break on his own account, the reader’s does for him as he tucks his emotions back into a safe place.
Back in the present Erneste isn’t entirely celibate. Even in clean, calm serene Switzerland in the 60′s there were still places where gay men would meet and Erneste indulges his longings by cottaging. It is only after an attack by queer-bashers one night which seem to bring his emotions close enough tot he surface for him to decide to do something about the letters and do what Jakob asks of him, which leads to more truth than he can handle.
The themes of first love-and of anyone hoarding that love so close to them for their entire life, not allowing themselves to live because of it- touched me closely because I understand how one can put barriers up in one’s life to prevent hurt happening to one again. But I think it was the fact that Erneste (and the others that Jakob came in contact with too) almost deified Jakob. Erneste wanted to mould him into his own image, others simply wanted to worship at the pedestal of his youth and beauty. It comes as no surprise when Jakob proves to have feet of clay, what is surprising is the depth of deceit that these men maintain – they all blame themselves, when they should be blaming Jakob.
Beautifully written, if the translation is anything to go by at least, this little book is well worth a read. It was rather too frustrating for me – I’m more active than the characters here. I’d fight, I’d make scenes – I find it hard to understand such perfect repression, but for all that – Erneste is never unbelievable and in this way I felt nothing for him but bitter pity.
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It wasn’t until all four of them were standing on the shore that Jakob shook Erneste’s hand and introduced himself. “Jakob Meier,” he said simply, and the handshake that accompanied this formal introduction seemed to say: “Here I am, having come here purely for your sake.” The little world in which Erneste had so blithely installed himself collapsed under the aegis of Jakob Meier’s shadow. He quit that world for evermore- for evermore, he knew it- and gladly, unresistingly left it behind.
We are left in no doubt of Erneste’s love – at first, helpless, hopeless passion. He is content, happy to take the handsome 19 year old German under his wing and to teach him to be – as he is himself – the perfect waiter. We are convinced of his devotion, a high church kind of devotion that makes him proud just to be called Jakob’s friend and he is convinced that everyone who sees Jakob must be jealous that he, Erneste is his friend, and not they. One of the most touching and erotic scenes is when Jakob goes to be fitted for his uniform. The seamstress measures Jakob, her hands travelling over every part of Jabob’s body and Erneste sits and watches, his hands are her hands imagining every muscle, every hair. When Jakob strips down to his underwear – the seamstresses all turn away and Erneste is almost gleeful that as a man there is nothing out of the oridinary for a man to watch another in this act.
Two months into their friendship Jakob instigates a kiss and their friendship turns to the physical. Erneste and Jakob live, love and work in the hotel and Erneste – having no discernible personality of his own, is subsumed by Jakob.
However, it’s fairly obvious by the information at the beginning of the book that this love-affair didn’t last and as the book slides from past to present and back again we are shown why and how and if Erneste’s heart doesn’t break on his own account, the reader’s does for him as he tucks his emotions back into a safe place.
Back in the present Erneste isn’t entirely celibate. Even in clean, calm serene Switzerland in the 60′s there were still places where gay men would meet and Erneste indulges his longings by cottaging. It is only after an attack by queer-bashers one night which seem to bring his emotions close enough tot he surface for him to decide to do something about the letters and do what Jakob asks of him, which leads to more truth than he can handle.
The themes of first love-and of anyone hoarding that love so close to them for their entire life, not allowing themselves to live because of it- touched me closely because I understand how one can put barriers up in one’s life to prevent hurt happening to one again. But I think it was the fact that Erneste (and the others that Jakob came in contact with too) almost deified Jakob. Erneste wanted to mould him into his own image, others simply wanted to worship at the pedestal of his youth and beauty. It comes as no surprise when Jakob proves to have feet of clay, what is surprising is the depth of deceit that these men maintain – they all blame themselves, when they should be blaming Jakob.
Beautifully written, if the translation is anything to go by at least, this little book is well worth a read. It was rather too frustrating for me – I’m more active than the characters here. I’d fight, I’d make scenes – I find it hard to understand such perfect repression, but for all that – Erneste is never unbelievable and in this way I felt nothing for him but bitter pity.
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March 25, 2016
I thought initially that there may be a play on words in the title ‘A Perfect Waiter’ in that Erneste, the protagonist is a perfect waiter in respect of his job but also a perfect ‘waiter’ in that he is still waiting 30 years on for his soul to be re-ignited or at least for something profound to happen as it did that one summer when Jakob entered his life.
Having checked up the German language aspect of the words ‘waiter’ there is of course no connection. However, I still think that the observation has value – he is a waiter who has been waiting for nearly all his life.
There is a Buddhist saying: The soul records only growth and not time. It was in response to a question put by the young novice Grasshopper to Master Po in Kung Fu when the boy wondered why some people come into our lives for a relatively short time yet make a profound impact and others are with us for decades and leave barely a dent on our psyches. I suspect that this is what happened to Erneste when Jakob entered his life for that brief time 30 years before. His presence woke Erneste out of a sleep, brought him alive, made him see the world in a completely different way and even made him think of leaving his chosen way of life and head off to America. The change was a still point in his life around which the past became the past and the rest of his life a footnote.
But Erneste had fossilised his life, keeping his external and internal lives as they were when Jakob walked out. He only changed his job once moving from a hotel to an upmarket restaurant. His life amounts to nothing and he doesn’t want it to. He is just biding his time thinking of Jakob but not doing anything to change his situation. His only other human foibles are that he drinks a bit too much and he visits a public toilet in a park every so often. What he does there is left to the reader’s imagination. For the reader familiar with the comedy actor Kenneth Williams you will understand a similarity in that the external life continued (a lot more colourful in Williams’ case) but the home life was cold and vacant.
It is a beautifully written book – there is no doubt about that – and it is essentially about a man whose life was lived in shadows, only half alive but who could have had a full life if only he had not been abandoned by the one man who brought him out of himself. Life is full of such people. Annie Proulx in a talk on the background to the short story Brokeback Mountain said that it came from a casual observation in a bar in the back end of nowhere when she observed a cowboy of more mature years eyeing the younger cowboys in a way that she felt betrayed a longing of what might have been if he had lived out his sexuality. Because he didn’t, he had ended up hanging around bars living vicariously through younger cowboys who were probably unaware of the man at all. Erneste transposed to Wyoming.
You may need to read some of the writing slowly to make the most of it but you should read it.
Having checked up the German language aspect of the words ‘waiter’ there is of course no connection. However, I still think that the observation has value – he is a waiter who has been waiting for nearly all his life.
There is a Buddhist saying: The soul records only growth and not time. It was in response to a question put by the young novice Grasshopper to Master Po in Kung Fu when the boy wondered why some people come into our lives for a relatively short time yet make a profound impact and others are with us for decades and leave barely a dent on our psyches. I suspect that this is what happened to Erneste when Jakob entered his life for that brief time 30 years before. His presence woke Erneste out of a sleep, brought him alive, made him see the world in a completely different way and even made him think of leaving his chosen way of life and head off to America. The change was a still point in his life around which the past became the past and the rest of his life a footnote.
But Erneste had fossilised his life, keeping his external and internal lives as they were when Jakob walked out. He only changed his job once moving from a hotel to an upmarket restaurant. His life amounts to nothing and he doesn’t want it to. He is just biding his time thinking of Jakob but not doing anything to change his situation. His only other human foibles are that he drinks a bit too much and he visits a public toilet in a park every so often. What he does there is left to the reader’s imagination. For the reader familiar with the comedy actor Kenneth Williams you will understand a similarity in that the external life continued (a lot more colourful in Williams’ case) but the home life was cold and vacant.
It is a beautifully written book – there is no doubt about that – and it is essentially about a man whose life was lived in shadows, only half alive but who could have had a full life if only he had not been abandoned by the one man who brought him out of himself. Life is full of such people. Annie Proulx in a talk on the background to the short story Brokeback Mountain said that it came from a casual observation in a bar in the back end of nowhere when she observed a cowboy of more mature years eyeing the younger cowboys in a way that she felt betrayed a longing of what might have been if he had lived out his sexuality. Because he didn’t, he had ended up hanging around bars living vicariously through younger cowboys who were probably unaware of the man at all. Erneste transposed to Wyoming.
You may need to read some of the writing slowly to make the most of it but you should read it.
Read
March 26, 2010I finished reading this last night (March 25th, 2010.) At the end of this review I have, in parentheses, my view on the dust jacket. I wrote that part when I bought the book a year or so ago.
This is a novel written in the manner of Thomas Mann, and it is obvious to me that the character Klinger is based on Mann. Klinger is a Nobel laureate who leaves his native Germany shortly after denouncing the Nazis. He moves to the United States. Klinger's grown children are very much like Mann's son Klaus and daughter. Klinger speaks like Mann and his writing is described in such a way as to tip off any person who's read more than a handful of Mann's stories and a novel or two that Klinger IS Thomas Mann -- up to a point. There are some differences. Klinger is presumably about fifteen years younger than the real Mann and lives at least until about twenty years after Man's death. In any case, the main character, Erneste, is well-drawn and is rather like a Mann character, but A PERFECT WAITER's real interest, for me, is its take on Thomas Mann's family dynamic. Not that Erneste is not interesting or that his lover Jakob is not compelling. But the three-dimensional character in this novel is Klinger, and it is a frightening, perceptive and ultimately tragic portrait of the ingenious literary artist who chose the right side when his countrymen were courting evil. Alain Claude Sulzer wrote this and I'm keeping my eye out for more of his books. About three-quarters through this novel Klinger actually says that someday soon people will be able to write openly about homosexuality but that he himself has had to disguise everything. I think Sulzer is writing the book Mann might have written on the subject. This said, one must remember that Mann wrote DEATH IN VENICE in 1911 and that it was published then. Twenty-five years later he wouldn't have been able to publish it it Germany. Mann saw his society open up, close and open up again.
Okay, here's what I wrote a year ago about the nifty dust jacket:
(I saw this in the store tonight. I snapped it up. I prefer the dust jacket you see above, which shows only one figure. If you don't see the picture I mean, you may be seeing the one which has two figures. The picture of the one figure is cropped from the picture featuring the two figures. It's an archival photo. It works a lot better with the one figure. I think the two figures are on the British cover, whereas I know the one figure is on the cover of the American edition, which came out a few months later.)
This is a novel written in the manner of Thomas Mann, and it is obvious to me that the character Klinger is based on Mann. Klinger is a Nobel laureate who leaves his native Germany shortly after denouncing the Nazis. He moves to the United States. Klinger's grown children are very much like Mann's son Klaus and daughter. Klinger speaks like Mann and his writing is described in such a way as to tip off any person who's read more than a handful of Mann's stories and a novel or two that Klinger IS Thomas Mann -- up to a point. There are some differences. Klinger is presumably about fifteen years younger than the real Mann and lives at least until about twenty years after Man's death. In any case, the main character, Erneste, is well-drawn and is rather like a Mann character, but A PERFECT WAITER's real interest, for me, is its take on Thomas Mann's family dynamic. Not that Erneste is not interesting or that his lover Jakob is not compelling. But the three-dimensional character in this novel is Klinger, and it is a frightening, perceptive and ultimately tragic portrait of the ingenious literary artist who chose the right side when his countrymen were courting evil. Alain Claude Sulzer wrote this and I'm keeping my eye out for more of his books. About three-quarters through this novel Klinger actually says that someday soon people will be able to write openly about homosexuality but that he himself has had to disguise everything. I think Sulzer is writing the book Mann might have written on the subject. This said, one must remember that Mann wrote DEATH IN VENICE in 1911 and that it was published then. Twenty-five years later he wouldn't have been able to publish it it Germany. Mann saw his society open up, close and open up again.
Okay, here's what I wrote a year ago about the nifty dust jacket:
(I saw this in the store tonight. I snapped it up. I prefer the dust jacket you see above, which shows only one figure. If you don't see the picture I mean, you may be seeing the one which has two figures. The picture of the one figure is cropped from the picture featuring the two figures. It's an archival photo. It works a lot better with the one figure. I think the two figures are on the British cover, whereas I know the one figure is on the cover of the American edition, which came out a few months later.)
August 14, 2016
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A beautifully written story set in Switzerland in 1935-1936 and 1966. The protagonist is Erneste, the perfect waiter, who occasionally falls in love with the fellow waiter Jacob. For Erneste it’s a love of his life, but for Jacob it’s only a fling. Eventually soon enough Jacob starts getting laid more often than he eats. Of course the revealing is painful for Erneste and this wound has never been quite healed. After Jacob’s leaving to America with his new lover Erneste suffers tremendously and basically stays single all his life. The life was quite bearable until he gets two letters from Jacob, after 30 years of silence and it reopens his almost healed wound.
This tragic story is told through flashbacks. When already old and solitary Erneste remembers the times he was happy and the times he was stubbed in the back. The letters from Jacob push Erneste to leave his comfort zone and to decide whether to help his former lover or not. Author shows us very strong personality who is weak in some ways, especially in ways that concern his heart.
This story is short and beautifully written; I enjoyed every page of it. Love and betrayal will never be out of fashion. But still I can’t recommend it to everyone because its major topic is with glbt flavor. But if you are not prejudiced you are very welcome.
A beautifully written story set in Switzerland in 1935-1936 and 1966. The protagonist is Erneste, the perfect waiter, who occasionally falls in love with the fellow waiter Jacob. For Erneste it’s a love of his life, but for Jacob it’s only a fling. Eventually soon enough Jacob starts getting laid more often than he eats. Of course the revealing is painful for Erneste and this wound has never been quite healed. After Jacob’s leaving to America with his new lover Erneste suffers tremendously and basically stays single all his life. The life was quite bearable until he gets two letters from Jacob, after 30 years of silence and it reopens his almost healed wound.
This tragic story is told through flashbacks. When already old and solitary Erneste remembers the times he was happy and the times he was stubbed in the back. The letters from Jacob push Erneste to leave his comfort zone and to decide whether to help his former lover or not. Author shows us very strong personality who is weak in some ways, especially in ways that concern his heart.
This story is short and beautifully written; I enjoyed every page of it. Love and betrayal will never be out of fashion. But still I can’t recommend it to everyone because its major topic is with glbt flavor. But if you are not prejudiced you are very welcome.
December 3, 2010
This is a very short novel. A novella really. It concerns a career waiter, Erneste, whose past comes back to haunt him in the form of Erneste's one and only, Jakob.
Jakob and Erneste were both waiters at a Swiss resort before WWII. Their brief romance--which is hardly explained in any depth--ended when Jakob took up with another man (two in fact). This betrayal breaks Erneste and not only does he never have another lover again, he mostly withdraws from society and has no friends or confidantes except a distant cousin.
30 years later, Jakob writes to Erneste in Germany from America asking that Erneste find the man whom Jakob left him and help to blackmail him. Things get kind of weird from here.
The total loner gay guy theme reminded me of Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett. (Or Mr. Clive and Mr. Page by the same author although that was kind of derivative of himself). But Bartlett did it much better. There was just no emotional complexity here to make you understand why Erneste decided to seal himself off from the world. Combined with a brutal gay-bashing, there was also too much gay literary cliche here. And I would recommend this book to people who want see a "non-example" of "show, don't tell."
Jakob and Erneste were both waiters at a Swiss resort before WWII. Their brief romance--which is hardly explained in any depth--ended when Jakob took up with another man (two in fact). This betrayal breaks Erneste and not only does he never have another lover again, he mostly withdraws from society and has no friends or confidantes except a distant cousin.
30 years later, Jakob writes to Erneste in Germany from America asking that Erneste find the man whom Jakob left him and help to blackmail him. Things get kind of weird from here.
The total loner gay guy theme reminded me of Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett. (Or Mr. Clive and Mr. Page by the same author although that was kind of derivative of himself). But Bartlett did it much better. There was just no emotional complexity here to make you understand why Erneste decided to seal himself off from the world. Combined with a brutal gay-bashing, there was also too much gay literary cliche here. And I would recommend this book to people who want see a "non-example" of "show, don't tell."
May 2, 2009
Translated from the German, this is a very peculiar novel of gay love, impeccably written in a spare, deliberately cold and concise style that avoids any sentimentality, but also feels so detached from the characters and the events that, at some point, the reader himself doesn't really feel very concerned by what happens. The story in itself is extremely simple, and has a kind of Thomas Mann quality - it's beautifully told, and the mechanic of the narration (which intertwines episodes taking places in the sixties and flashbacks from a more distant past) works well, although the final climax is not a surprise, and doesn't quite have the expected impact. The main character (a bit similar to the one from Remains of the Day), isn't very compelling, and not really likable: it is obviously deliberate on the part of the author, but it is a problem, because it's hard to care for him at all. The great lost love at the heart of his story is intriguing, and filled with nostalgia and pain, but it doesn't provoke much emotion: behind the elegance of Sulzer's writing, the coldness he never departs from creates a frustrating gap between the heated, passionate events, and how the reader feels when reading about them.
February 11, 2011
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.
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