Everyday Life - Softcover

Lydie Salvayre

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564783499 ISBN 13: 9781564783493

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2006

Synopsis

The hiring of a new secretary shouldn t be a big deal--just a slight a change in the office environment. But for the protagonist of this novel, it is a declaration of war, a call to arms: "The new secretary has only been here two days," she says, "and I'm already talking about evil, a word I shouldn't even be using--arming myself for battle and choosing my weapons." Her quiet life of sacrifice and service has been rudely disrupted by the new hire, and she is not--despite the advice of her doctor, her neighbors, and her daughter--about to leave it at that. Instead, sabotage, alcohol, and kindness become the arsenal in a conflict fought across copy rooms and office parties. But the humor is undercut by a sadness, a sense of defeat that makes this slim novel resonate with the injustice of our increasingly impersonal, corporate world.

About this title

Review:

"Salvayre's work applies a cheerful irony to very dark preoccupations: chiefly the connection between political repression and family horrors, and the male sickness of authoritarianism. . . . Salvayre is a writer with a mission." --London Review of Books

"There are innocuous books that charm you, gently surprise you at moments you didn t expect, blissfully put you to sleep, make you dream of princes and princesses. . . . But there are others, like Lydie Salvayre's novels, that make you sit up and take notice, that directly confront you, that shake you up from the very first sentence, warning you that the test is going to be brutal, the dream is going to be dark, and the princess's smile is going to be painful." --Le Monde

"Never a false note. . . . One of France's most virtuosic young novelists." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author:

Lydie Salvayre, the daughter of refugees from the Spanish Civil War, grew up in the south of France, where she attended medical school and received a degree in psychiatry. It wasn't until she was in her mid-forties that she published her first novel The Declaration. Since that time she has published nine other books, including Everyday Life, The Lecture, and The Power of Flies. These three titles are all forthcoming from, or published by, Dalkey Archive Press. She has received numerous accolades and awards in France for her fiction, including the Prix Hermes for The Declaration and the Prix Novembre for The Company of Ghosts. Jane Kuntz is in the French Department at the University of Illinois.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1564783499
• ISBN 13: 9781564783493
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 119