Élisabeth Filhol
Author of La Centrale
About the Author
Works by Élisabeth Filhol
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Filhol, Élisabeth
- Birthdate
- 1965-05-01
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- France
- Country (for map)
- France
- Birthplace
- Mende, France
Members
Reviews
Awards
Statistics
- Works
- 3
- Members
- 79
- Popularity
- #226,897
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 15
- Languages
- 5
This is a hard one to review. Not much is going on in the way of plot: Filhol is more interested in delving into the piecemeal ruminations of a perennial temp worker constantly worried about employment, radiation, accommodation, companionship, dying. On other levels, too, the book abounds in snippets and fragments that slowly coagulate into a coherent narrative. Filhol sketches little interactions between the caste of the itinerant workers, pens little essays about things like Chernobyl, and inserts traditionally narrative sequences, such as the one about the anti-nuclear activists. Much of the plot, such as it is, plays out in temporary accommodation, brief sojourns, short-term jobs, interrupted colleague-friend relationships, and segments of the road trips between power plants. After a while, this creates a vague discomfort that is a wonderful companion to the subject matter.
In the end I’m glad the bookseller recommended this to me: this is a book I would never have considered buying myself, and so it pushed me past my comfort zone. Did I enjoy it? Not initially, and certainly not as a narrative, at least. But as the pages wore on I found myself appreciating the style, the morose ebb and flow of a nearly burnt-out temp worker in a harsh business I did not know about. Towards the end I almost couldn’t put it down.… (more)