Reader for Hire by Raymond Jean

Author:Raymond Jean [Jean, Raymond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908670236
Publisher: Peirene Press
Published: 2015-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

Having decided to pursue the experiment with Michel Dautrand, I’m heading for his apartment with a Claude Simon book. I’ve kept the glasses, but abandoned the tailored jacket. The preppy look is over. I’ve gone all out for velvet trousers. It has to be said, I might as well choose clothes that are going to protect me. I hope this customer won’t be as disappointed as Eric. I’ll know from the look on his face.

It’s funny, because he’s been through more or less the same thought process as me. He’s abandoned the jacket and tie. He’s wearing a big shapeless sweater and looks very relaxed, a lot more than last time at any rate. He tells me straight away that he only has an hour to spare and not two as planned. So I’ll have to do some ‘intensive reading’ (that’s the expression he uses). This is probably why he drops down into a large armchair, crosses his hands behind his neck, closes his eyes and waits. I’m invited to take another armchair. But I choose the pouffe. I explain briefly that Claude Simon should provide ‘intensive reading’ because his work is very dense. But I add that he shouldn’t hope for a story, for events and anecdotes: just beautiful writing where every word in the text has its own weight. I’ve chosen a passage from Lesson in Things which describes a painting or engraving:

Three women who probably have delicate complexions, because they are protecting them from the sun with parasols, are walking downhill through a sloping orchard. They wear light-coloured dresses in an old-fashioned cut, nipped in at the waist, with leg-of-mutton sleeves. One of them waves a leafy branch about her hat and upper body to keep horseflies away. Crinkled hazelnut leaves give off a heady fragrance, made all the richer by the heat of the afternoon. The horseflies have long, greyish wings freckled with black. Walking ahead of the women is a little girl in a pale dress and wearing a boater made of wide, flattened stalks of gleaming straw woven in a chevron pattern. She is holding a bouquet of wild flowers…

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