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Ginsberg, Debra - Waiting
A memoir of someone who spent twenty years as a waitress. I am perpetually interested in waiting because I sort of was a waitress in college, and it's always fun to read other people's experience.
I think the thing that struck me the most about this book was just how non-bitter she was! I was quite impressed. Of course, I also got the sense that Ginsberg had a personality much more suited to waiting than mine (extreme introvert) -- she honestly likes seeing different kinds of people and doesn't mind interacting with them. So while there were the usual waiting horror stories, including a time when someone vomited at her table and she had vomit-laden tissues handed to her (yuck!!), they lacked a certain vicious sting that really burnt out people have. That was rather pleasant, actually. Because while I was pretty burnt out considering how little crap I had to deal with, reading constantly burnt out people can be a bit dispiriting after a while.
Anyhow, I just had a great deal of fun reading about the hierarchies of restaurants, various crazy experiences she had, and the like. I was a bit more iffy on the chapter on the social construction of the waitress, or the waitress in film -- granted, Ginsberg doesn't put herself up as any sort of social expert or cultural expert of the sort, but I felt the chapter was just much more... floppy? not as well-documented or even as interesting as her own personal experiences.
I think the thing that struck me the most about this book was just how non-bitter she was! I was quite impressed. Of course, I also got the sense that Ginsberg had a personality much more suited to waiting than mine (extreme introvert) -- she honestly likes seeing different kinds of people and doesn't mind interacting with them. So while there were the usual waiting horror stories, including a time when someone vomited at her table and she had vomit-laden tissues handed to her (yuck!!), they lacked a certain vicious sting that really burnt out people have. That was rather pleasant, actually. Because while I was pretty burnt out considering how little crap I had to deal with, reading constantly burnt out people can be a bit dispiriting after a while.
Anyhow, I just had a great deal of fun reading about the hierarchies of restaurants, various crazy experiences she had, and the like. I was a bit more iffy on the chapter on the social construction of the waitress, or the waitress in film -- granted, Ginsberg doesn't put herself up as any sort of social expert or cultural expert of the sort, but I felt the chapter was just much more... floppy? not as well-documented or even as interesting as her own personal experiences.