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Everyday Life

Lydie Salvayre author Doctor of French Jane Kuntz translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Dalkey Archive Press

Published:16th Nov '06

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Everyday Life cover

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.

"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

ISBN: 9781564783493

Dimensions: 202mm x 128mm x 9mm

Weight: 154g

119 pages