"MADAM, STEP AWAY FROM THE SQUIRREL!"

 - The Waiter's (aka Steve Dublanica) Waiter Rant. 
  

The title quote is one of the memorable moments in Steve Dublanica's witty and insightful memoir of his life as a waiter at very high-end restaurant. I have a "secret" addiction to reading service industry memoirs. I blame it on years of working retail and a curiosity about everyday careers I know nothing about. 

If you ever wanted to know who is really cooking your food or how wild retail customer demands can get, here are the best books exploring the other side of customer service. Just click on the book image to enter the catalog and place your hold.

Anthony Bourdain's memoir/expose of the restaurant industry intends to reveal what Bourdain calls "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine."

Freeman Hall details his experiences as a handbag salesman at "The Big Fancy" aka Nordstrom's, sparing no punches in his descriptions of various customers.












Jacob Tomsky's reviews his life working hospitality while teaching his readers the ins and outs of getting out of various hotel fees and scams.










Peter Allison's career is a little more exotic, but his tales of being a a tour guide highlight some of the adventures of people who work in tourism.










A flight attendant's tell-all about over a decade of flying high and dealing with testy travelers.












Bruns's does for Carnival cruise ships what Bourdain does for restaurants in this raunchy but amusing confidential.












Ehrenreich's book is a departure from the others on this list. Nickel and Dimed is a critical, fascinating look at various jobs earning minimum wage and qualify as "unskilled" labor.

Very Realistic Fiction

I just read the novel, Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman. It's a poignant story that chronicles a love affair from its nascence to its end. The main character, Frank, is a seasoned gentleman who is instantly smittten with a younger woman, Aura. It's not just her youth and beauty that attract him but their shared Hispanic heritage and similar interests in writing, academics and travel. The reader learns immediately that something terrible happens to Aura, and the romance and marriage do not last very long. Readers of realistic fiction may feel they have read this book before with its tender descriptions of love, regret and grief, but this time they can not take comfort in make believe. This story is more true than not, and sadly this is Francisco Goldman's story.

Because this novel is autobiographical and written diary-like, I wonder what makes it a novel and not a memoir? There are many authors that have written of personal loss in a similar fashion and they are more often described as memoirs and nonfiction. Examples are Joan Didion's A Year of Magical Thinking, Joyce Carol Oates' A Widow's Story, Elizabeth McCracken's An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, Pure Lover, by David Plante and Buckley's Losing Mum and Pup.

I am fascinated by Goldman's story. Which parts are true? Which parts are contrived and why. At least its autobiographical basis was disclosed and I know to question. Early readers of James Frey's memoir A Million Little Pieces were just duped.