An audio book, translated from French.
The narrator, 39, educated, does temp work in Brittany food processing plants. He's married and uses literary allusions. He waxes lyrical about the big machines made by machines. The men talk about their wives. Routines and shift work affect his notions of time, and his notions about the dignity of labour.
He then works in an abattoir, earning money to buy dog biscuits . He realises that since he started factory work he hasn't needed his meds (anti-anxiety, etc). His mother has cancer.
It did little for me.
Other reviews
- Valentina Gosetti (Sometimes termed an experimental novel, On the Line defies categorisation. The sixty-six free-verse entries without punctuation composing this diary of social demotion surface from a charged blank page. ... )
- Rosie Eyre (the free verse that flowed instead, unpunctuated except for line breaks to reflect the production cycle that never truly stops, is as memorable as any rhyming metre. It’s also profoundly human.)
