Customer Reviews

Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States (P.S.)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dishwasher Pete approaches the craft of washing dishes like some couch-surfing Zen Buddhist wearing a smirk and a food-stained apron. He, along with Aaron Cometbus, are this generation's answer to Jack Kerouac -- wandering around the nation free, unencumbered, and sticking true to their ideals of a minimalistic approach to life. And always with a sense of humor and a knack for pointing out the idiotic and inane.

Jordan's epic journey through the restaurant kitchens of America is testament to the fact that not everything is celebrity-this, reality TV-that, mortgage payments, and gas-guzzling SUVs, and that it is indeed possible to survive in this modern world on less than $5 a day and still get a kick out of life without cable TV and a highspeed Internet connection.

If you enjoy reading Bukowski or Jesus's adventures in the New Testament, if you can appreciate the absurdity in just about anything that has to do with surviving in modern-day Suburbia, USA and having to commute two hours every day to a job you hate to support a lifestyle you didn't know you needed, then you will find "Dishwasher" to be an enjoyable read.

-- anthony
[...]

This book is about Dishwasher Pete's (aka Pete Jordan) quest to wash dishes in all fifty states. Why anyone would want to do that, or would even care to read about a slacker trying to do it, is hard to imagine, but I found it a great read.

Perhaps I found it interesting just because I wanted to understand why anyone would want to wash dishes (the Dirty Job's slant), or perhaps because of my brief (two-day) stint as a plongeur, or a desire to travel the country. But most likely it's my love of a real-world adventure told by a great story teller.

This type of book often has the danger of the author who takes themselves far too serious, or on an ego trip. I mean who really cares about a dishwasher. But this is really a book about a lot more.

There's the cultural differences throughout the country, where it's easy to get a dishing job, and where cultural prejudices precludes it. It shows you that dish washers are an important part of our world, and that despite their low-standing they still are needed, and that whether you're on an oil-rig, dinner train, commune, jewish nursing home, cannery, or Oktoberfest, there's someone in the dish pit taking care of business. And of course, I found it amusing that if it weren't for the cyclist unfriendly roads of Pittsburgh, he could be my neighbor.

And finally there's the philosophical perspective this book tries to provide towards the end. After ten years soaking suds, sleeping in a van, traveling the country, and bouncing between jobs, what else can you do with your life. Well, if your like Dishwasher Pete, you can become a pretty good writer.

One man's dirty dishes are another man's paradise...

As far as entertainment and humor value goes, Pete Jordan's self-proclaimed quest to wash dishes in all fifty states is quite high. Pete seems to be just your average-Joe type who begins the book trying to figure out what type of work is best for him. He doesn't want something that entails too much responsibility or pressure, so he continues to search until the day when he discovers "dishing"--it is his calling and seemingly an employment epiphany.

From here Pete learns the ins and outs of dishwashing, going from place to place, and picking up experience as well as dishwashing "street" lingo: three-day soaker, dish dog, pearl diver, the dish pit, "busting suds", and the dishmaster. When he finds discovers how much he enjoys moving around, he decides that he is going to add traveling from place to place in search of "dishing" in all the states to his ideas. He develops a check-list of "to dos" and also finds out about the history of dishwashing, such as known celebrities who have "dished", and begins to write a zine about his journeys.

What makes Jordan's book humorous and entertaining is his experiences (although sometimes he is a little too honest about the restaurants) and the philosophies he acquires as he moves along. For instance, he openly admits that the best part about finding a job is to be able to quit it without moment's notice, which he does quite often. Later, he muses about what he deems an unnecessary interview question about a job: "If her house had been on fire and someone arrived in fireman's gear raring to put it out, she wouldn't have stopped and asked him where he saw himself in five years. She'd get....out of the way and let the pro do his job." Another funny bit is when he has his friend Jess pretend that he is "Dishwasher Pete" on David Letterman. He comes up with a "creed" for dishwashing and tries to follow it as much as possible, such as never cooking (there is an episode where he purposely burns waffles to get out of this kind of duty) and never bussing tables. If there were a badge for irresponsibility, Pete Jordan might very well be wearing it.

If there is one blemish, it is the book's finish. It seems a little rushed, almost as if he was in a hurry to have it finished and published. In the book's final pages there are some letters from fans of the zine, as well as a little more biography about the author.

Because of the book's uniqueness, it is a refreshing read. Although it is about his dishwashing experiences and written as a memoir, it is also about freedom, finding oneself and "making it" in the modern world. Some may readily identify with Pete's ways; others may scoff at his lack of responsibility. It is a quick, easy book to finish and recommended for anyone who works at a restaurant, likes to travel, enjoys writing or just wants a good laugh. This is great summer reading!

It's a beautiful, working class bible. A 'f*ck you' to the system. A reminder that we should reassess what is important in life. I will admit that I have known the author for many years. Our history goes back to the mid-1990s when he was still a dish dog and I was scrapping by - by running printing machines. We were both starving zinesters. Pete would drop in to sleep on my floor, spend his days in the library and his nights washing dishes in Brooklyn. He was a bit of blessing in my life. Back then, no matter how many hours I worked, I could not keep up with my bills. My dreams outside my day job seemed so lofty. As a dish dog Pete had perfected the art of living on a dollar a day. Or less. To him it was a challenge. His thriftiness was awh inspiring. He made survival an art form. A messy one, but an art form none the less. He helped me see that poverty could be more than just an obstacle or an embarrassment. His message to me is that money does not make me richer - living well does. Thanks for writing the book Pete.

I really like stories of people's jobs, and no one I've ever read about has had more jobs then Disherwasher Pete. The author of the long-run cult favorite zine "Dishwasher" has put out this great book by the same name. Pete decided at a very long age when he had a hard time figuring out what he wanted to do for his life, that he liked to travel and see the country, and that dishwashing was the way to do it. He put up a goal of going to all 50 states to wash dishes. This is his autobiography of those journeys. And as a former dishwasher, I love this even more.

It's one of those books you can't put down because it's so wild. He talks about his time aboard oil rigs, loads of evil, sick, and twisted bosses, grungy work conditions, the ability to quit a job that screws with him in any possible way (and believe me, he takes advantage of that, fulfilling the impulse of every worker in America.) Along the way, as he puts out his zine, he develops a reputation as a "Master Dishwasher" and treats the reader to the underground world of dishwashing, of sorts, like eating off of the bus tray buffet (sometimes I never got enough of when I was working as a pearl diver). He ends up on David Letterman (actually, just a friend of his impersonating him), has tons of near dates, and tells about the great history of dishwasher unions and the loyalty they have (to the exclusion of the servers and the cooks.) He doesn't spare the reader of descriptions of nasty kitchens full of roaches and rodents, and drinking on the job to pass it by.

Pete really lives a lot of people's dreams, and refuses to let it end until he's at the age of 35, having been to every state in the union and seen a lot more than most people do in their whole lives. He's got such a sense of humor that's so self-depricating but at the same time proud that he doesn't let anyone tell him how to be. Everywhere from racist Louisiana resteraunt owners to hippy communes who try to sucker him into doing more than he wants, Pete always seems to end up on top. He lives dollar to dollar and makes every buck count in his travels, but always confident he can find another job, because once you washed one dish, you can wash any dish.

"Dishwasher" has a take that few of us would have thought of, a travel narrative about washing dishes around the country. The proliferation of travel tales has resulted in many approaches but this has to be a first.

Pete Jordan comes across as a decent fellow with absolutely no ambition. Some would call him the ultimate slacker but at least he had the gumption to write and publish this book. It took a while for me to warm up to him, however. His tales of outright theft from the people he works for, as well as drinking himself into oblivion, lack of respect for anyone other than fellow dishwashers and lack of empathy for the hard-up restaurateurs who employ him make the reader wonder, why should I like this guy? Scarfing food from dirty plates (the "bus tray buffet") and sponging whenever and wherever he can go a long way toward testing the public's natural willingness to give an author the benefit of the doubt, especially when shelling out hard-earned cash.

Eventually, however, Jordan grew on me. I think my opinion turned about the time he began to research the early days of the American labor movement and discovered that quite a few of the rabble-rousers were abused dishwashers. This is a tale of what it's like behind the scenes, in the back of restaurants and cafes where the "dirty work" gets done. Pete's rule insisting that he have the freedom to walk out on any job, whenever the mood strikes him, is the dream of many an overworked, disrespected service industry grunt. While I often felt sorry for the employers who trusted him enough to give him a chance (as he drank their beer and ate their food when they weren't looking), the other side of the coin is that too many business owners still don't get it. To attract and keep good people, you treat them with respect, pay a decent wage and don't take advantage of them. Quite a few examples in "Dishwasher" illustrate how the "lowly" position is easily filled so keeping a guy on his feet for twelve or fifteen hours, late into the night, is common.

A few times I wanted Jordan to get out of bed and go to work when the time for his shift rolled around. That's not Pete. If he felt like it he went in. If not, he rolled over and went back to sleep. Consequently, the guy looking for respect perpetuated the attitude against dishwashers and other kitchen workers by not showing up or walking out in the middle of a shift. God knows why his wife persistently pursued him but, thankfully for the author, she did. Evidently he's now happily married (and a father), living in Amsterdam.

This somewhat strange little tale is mostly entertaining but does get a little redundant. How many stories about washing dishes can one relate and keep them interesting? Fortunately, Jordan manages to maintain that standard through most of the book. Life in a brutally capitalist society like America can be rough. Here's a picture of what it's like when you don't have a place to live, transportation or a solid, stellar resume'.

This book is an autobiography/memoir about a slacker-inclined dude named Pete from California that washes dishes, and eventually decides to turn his dishwashing into a quest to 'dish' in all 50 states of the USA. The book itself spans a good deal of Pete's life before, after, and in between dish jobs as well as talks about the history and lifestyle of dishwashers - which apparently has a whole subculture of 'pearl divers'.

Overall this was an entertaining, lighthearted, quick and easy read. Despite the potentially dull-sounding premise (sort of dull anyway...how many people like to wash dishes, never mind read about them?) the book itself pitches Pete into a ton of really crazy dishwashing scenarios including a summer camp, a train, a dinner theatre town, an oil rig, a commune, and the Alaskan wilderness. It has a very bohemian Kerouac feeling to it, as you learn how dishwashing is actually the ideal job for a slacker - because they are always wanted, they actually have a fair bit of power in whether they choose to stay at a place or move along somewhere else at a moment's notice.

There were however, a few very frustrating things. The first is Pete's slacker mentality drove me nuts. It almost felt good to see it catch up to him as the book progressed and he actually wanted to settle. Pete is the type of person to live out of a cargo bag rather than own a house, to crash on people's floors, to bum money off people, to stop working until he's down to his last cent, to go change hunting as he walks the streets...and for the average person, his elitist attitude about this lifestyle was extremely annoying.

Tying with that, my second beef with the book is the fact Pete is prone to a weird dichotomy of 'not caring' but also 'caring' about dishing and the culture around it. He's one of those annoying subculture hipsters that are so pretentious that 'not caring' needs to be handled in a certain way to be acceptable to his definition of cool. Finally those two things lend itself to the fact the quest is never really completed - this is revealed on the back of the book, I'm not spoiling anything - and it easily could have been completed had Pete not cared about items 1 & 2.

Still this is an interesting read - it's a very dynamic little slice of life that I guarantee you would regularly have NO exposure to. Intelligent it may not be, but entertaining and at times, insightful (into this culture anyway) it is. A decent, fun read.

I was a big fan of Dishwasher zine, constantly bothering the employees at Quimby's in Chicago to ask when they'd have the next issue. Dishwasher was a zine about so much more than washing dishes. It was about freedom, community, the DIY ethos, and humanity. The stories were always entertaining, thought out, and well written.

I was bummed when Pete stopped publishing Dishwasher, but elated when I found out about this book. It's essentially a memoir, and it has many of the same stories that he told in the zine. (I haven't dug up my back issues to check, but at least a couple of the stories seem to be word-for-word re-tellings of stories that appeared in the zine. This is testament to what a great writer and self-editor Pete has always been.) Here, the stories are pulled together and told within the context of a single tale, that of a man trying to find his place in the world. But it's really not as corny as I'm making it sound, sorry.

Anyway, great book.

I found this book to be a fun read. I was drawn into the journey and very much enjoyed the humor throughout the storytelling. I don't think anyone has to be a fan of any particular genre to like this book. It went by quick, and I was kind of wanting a little more when it ended.

People compare this work to Kerouac's On The Road. Or at least, a blurb on the back cover of this book makes the comparison. I understand why. Here's a guy who looks at the conventional expectations of our society, shrugs them off, and hits the road. In this case, he aims to be a dishwasher in all 50 states.

I really wanted to like this book. The material was probably great as presented originally, in zine articles and pieces on the NPR radio show This American Life. The book is organized into vignettes, each focusing on a particular place in Jordan's dishwashing travels. A few of the vignettes described interesting characters or incidents. The problem is that Jordan just isn't a very good writer. Nothing really comes alive. The people he meets are not vividly described and most start merging together after a while. The dishwashing itself is described in depth, which is kind of cool, but Jordan's thoughts and motivations are often muddy, and come across instead as a compulsive zig-zag from place to place. Maybe that is because his travels really were a compulsive zig-zag, but it doesn't make for much of a narrative.

Worst of all, I thought that Jordan just seemed like, well, kind of a jerk. Putting one over on "the man" is one thing, but it seemed as though he'd just as soon rip off a small, mom and pop operation as steal from a corporate commissary. As I read about him bailing on people and places, one by one, I hoped for an interesting epiphany, or at least a little bit of reflection on his experience and how he felt about it. Instead, the book lurched to an abrupt halt, and we're left with nothing substantial at all.

This isn't a bad read -- just don't expect it to live up to the hype, and don't expect an author with much to say about the interesting life he chose to lead.