Irregulars

by Kerry Trautman

Not unlike a Robert Altman film with a sprawling & stellar ensemble cast, Kerry Trautman's novella "Irregulars" weaves a myriad of stories over breakfast on one morning in a small town diner. We follow our protagonist, a still-young but not-quite-as hopeful-as-she-once-was waitress as she floats from table to table, back of house to front, serving customers, dealing with coworkers, managing her anxieties, and remembering moments of her own past and, with omniscience, those of the families and individuals seated at tables 4, 10, 7, 8 and 5.

Genres: Fiction

70 pages, Paperback

Published July 18, 2023

Reviews

[Teresa]

If you’re someone who’s worked in the service industry and speculated about the lives of the customers, you’ll relate to this book. Even if you haven’t worked in that sector but are the type of person who makes up stories about people you encounter, you still resemble the narrator. Working at a diner, she easily goes from first-person, giving us the facts of the table she’s serving, to third-person for her head-stories about her customers then back to first-person, this time giving insight into her own life, background, and personality.

[Ashly]

Delightfully enigmatic novella set in a small town diner with an unnamed narrator who is a waitress there.

Many parts of this were stunning, making me nostalgic for people-places-events that weren't exactly my own, but could've been.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a former waitress, loved this. Reminds me of the waitress in Working by Studs Terkel, except Working’s waitress (Dolores?) describes how she feels about herself. In this mini novel, the protagonist is acutely focused on the lives of her customers and more uncomfortable with introspection - we only get glimpses of how she feels about herself, mainly through memories.

[Nina Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grab a cup of coffee and a slice of pie and dig into this delicious book!

The fun of Irregulars is entering the very familiar and comfortable world of a busy diner and getting introduced to its staff and patrons with a relaxed ease that becomes surprisingly intimate. The inner worlds brought forth by the main character leave you speculating how much is known from experience and how much is entirely speculative, reflecting the waitress's inner journey. Who themselves haven't wondered about the lives of "regulars," the people you may see every day but never really follow home? Here, we get a chance at that, and it is so much fun. Whether we are getting these individuals' actual lives or entirely fictive deductions by the waitress, the experience is delightful. It leaves you feeling warm and satisfied, like you just ate a plate of waffles smothered in real maple syrup.

(A bonus for me was the Waffle recipe tucked into the pages on a Guest Check! Being a book club member at Stanchion Books has its privileges.)

[Michael Kocinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s not long enough…just kidding, it’s the perfect length, but I could have happily spent a lot more time in this diner. I always get a little thrill when I see the word ‘Toledo’ in a book or a poem. And there’s a little section, a couple of sentences, really, where we get a description of the line cook doing the breakfast rush shuffle, and as a person who spent many hours on a make line cranking out food, I knew that dance and Kerry made it sound elegant and dignified and I really loved that. This is some kind of a book. The comparison to Altman is apt, it also feels like it shares a little DNA with Daniel Clowes (Ghost World), and Sharon Olds. Kerry’s prose is charged up in the same way as Sharon Olds’ poetry, particularly in Daniel and Emily’s stories. Just really sharp human perspective stuff here. And the food service details sell the whole thing—you know right where you are—we’ve all eaten at one of these diners or worked somewhere just like it.

[Hiromi Yoshida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kerry Trautman's Irregulars serves up a vivid sequence of narrative fragments. They are the products of the narrating diner server who, through imaginative speculation about her customers and their lives, attempts to alleviate the monotony of her job. The conversational tone encourages the accessibility of Irregulars despite its complex narrative structure. Thus, we are entertained as much as the server, who sweeps us away on a whirlwind of numbered tables and through the imagined lives of the consumers of over-sugared coffee and watery oatmeal.

[Roxane Llanque · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Mood For Diner Love?

This is a melancholic gem where a small town diner waitress becomes a prism of humanity through her reflection and imaginings of the regulars she waits on. We never learn her name, nor what is fact or fiction - and just through that Kerry Trautman captures the double-edged beauty of the kind of intimacy one can only find with strangers. Read it with a good coffee for breakfast, and enjoy!

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible insight into humanity told through an unnamed narrator’s perceptions (knowledge? Imaginings? We don’t know, which I love!) of the patrons at her restaurant tables. Bonus fun if you’ve ever waited tables but definitely not necessary to grasp the power of the work. There is not a wasted word — I look forward to more from Trautman and Stanchion!

[Liza_lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful and sad slice of life novella in which a waitress full of unfulfilled promise waits on tables and dreams (?) perceives (?) the lives of those she's served.

A melancholy mood piece and a gem.

Enjoyed this one.