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 humour that sit in poignant contrast with the blood and sweat of the factory floor.
On the Line : Notes From a Factory
Description
Author Description
After studying literature and social work, Joseph Ponthus worked for over ten years as a social worker and special needs teacher in the suburbs of Paris. In 2012 he co-authored Nous... La Cite (The Suburbs are Ours). His most recent work is A la Ligne (On the Line). He lives and works in Brittany, France. Sackville is an English stage, film and television actor as well as a voice artist. He graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to leading roles in regional theatre and the West End followed by a period with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Sackville has appeared on film and television in The Wedding Date, The Royal, Midsomer Murders and Rosemary & Thyme. His more recent projects include the BBC's The Secret of Crickley Hall and two seasons of the Netflix series The Crown. Sackville also lends his voice to documentaries, audiobooks and computer games.