Dear Catastrophe Waitress is, of course, named after the great 2003 BELLE AND SEBASTIAN album of the same name. However, it has absolutely nothing to do with Belle and Sebastian. Regardless, I can tell you that it’s one of the most moving works of fiction I’ve ever read. I liked it so much that I started re-reading it the day after I finished it (in two days), which is something I rarely do with any book. I even loaned it to a friend who I thought would love it, though I was a little sad to part with it (even for a short time).
Ever since then, I’ve been trying to figure out why this book affected me so deeply. It’s essentially a love story. The male protagonist, MARK NORRIS, is an Ivy League-educated elementary school teacher living in Boston. Raised as a Unitarian Universalist, he ends up in a 3 year relationship with a woman whom he reconnects with at a Unitarian summer camp reunion before she moves to California and leaves him for her co-worker (a fellow corporate lawyer). Before that, his college girlfriend also left him and becomes a rock star largely on the basis of a hit song ridiculing his sexual prowess.
The female protagonist is PHILLIPA JANE STRANGE, a punk rock girl from a rich family but with an abusive, alcoholic mother who has to leave London after her ex-boyfriend writes a song calls “Phillipa Cheats” that becomes a huge hit in the UK. After a series of ill-fated relationships, Phillipa changes her name and flees for Boston after she finds out that she’s pregnant.
I’d tell you all how they meet, but that would be giving too much away. Although the book is full of sexual references and innuendo and at times even reads like soft-core porn, it’s also well-written, humane and sympathetic to its extremely well-developed characters. Unusual for a male author, BRENDAN HALPIN writes female characters extremely well, never relying on stereotypical roles.
Another thing to note is the book’s references to pop culture and music, cues which always hook me in. Halpin is never obnoxious about it, though. Instead, he uses references to everyone from THE CLASH to HUSKER DU to fictionalized artists like ROCK-L and NATIONAL HATE SERVICE in order to reel in music fans, much like NICK HORNBY did in novels like High Fidelity. Again, this is in many ways a classic love story, albeit an unconventional one.
In any case, I give this book my highest possible recommendation.
