Out of all the positions in a restaurant, why write about a dishwasher? With the release of The Dishwasher in English, he sat down with Eater Montreal to discuss the novel, his life in restaurants, the translation process, and more. The book isn’t autobiographical, but draws on Larue’s own experiences in restaurants: He worked as a dishwasher in the early 2000s, and while he left the dish pit behind long ago, he’s still in the industry, as an owner of Mile End bar La Taverne du Pélican. The Dishwasher centres some dark themes like alcoholism and drug use in the kitchen, drawing inevitable comparisons to Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. With a strong sense of realism, the book - renamed The Dishwasher for its English release - details the at time overwhelming life of the restaurant in formidable detail as the chaotic winter holiday season approaches. After digging himself into a financial hole with an online gambling habit, the main character (also the book’s narrator) takes a job washing dishes at a high-end restaurant. Written by Longueuil native-turned-Montrealer Stéphane Larue, published in French in 2016, and now translated by Pablo Strauss, it’s a coming of age story of a dishwasher on the cusp of his 20s, living and working on the Plateau in 2002. Award-winning Québécois novel Le Plongeur is now available in an English translation.
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