Joseph Ponthus
On the Line
On the Line
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A French bestseller in verse, "On the Line" captures the mundane and the beautiful, the blood and sweat, of working on the factory floor in Brittany. Joseph Ponthus enlists with a temp agency and starts to pick up casual shifts in the fish processing plants and abattoirs. He records the nature of work with precision, finding solace in a life previously lived. The book is praised for its elegance and humor, and for its poignant contrast with the blood and sweat of the factory floor.
Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 03 February 2022
Publisher: Head of Zeus
A celebrated French bestseller, this novel in verse captures the mundane and the beautiful, the blood and sweat, of working on the factory floor in the processing plants and abattoirs of Brittany. Unable to find work in his field, Joseph Ponthus enlists with a temp agency and starts to pick up casual shifts in the fish processing plants and abattoirs of Brittany. Day after day, he records with infinite precision the nature of work on the production line: the noise, the weariness, the dreams stolen by the repetitive nature of exhausting rituals and physical suffering. But he finds solace in a life previously lived. Shelling prawns, he dreams of Alexandre Dumas. Pushing cattle carcasses, he recalls Apollinaire. And, in the grace of the blank spaces created by his insistent return to a new line of text – mirroring his continued return to the production line – we discover the woman he loves, the happiness of a Sunday, Pok Pok the dog, the smell of the sea.
In this celebrated French bestseller, translated by Stephanie Smee, Ponthus captures the mundane, the beautiful, and the strange, writing with an elegance and humor that sit in poignant contrast with the blood and sweat of the factory floor. On the Line is a poet's ode to manual labor, and to the human spirit that makes it bearable.
Praise for On the Line: Poetic and political, lyrical and realistic, Joseph Ponthus' spirited elegy is at once surprising, captivating, and affecting. Télérama. It is not every day that one witnesses the birth of a writer. France 5 La Grande Librairie. A work that is powerful, clever, benevolent, optimistic even. Essential reading. Causette. Be prepared for a battering of the senses with vivid, grisly prose. France Magazine.
Weight: 196g
Dimension: 129 x 198 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800243972
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