Work

by Stephen Dixon

New-York côté barman ; et plus encore ses habitants, toute une population recrue de vitesse, d'excitation et de dollars. Pour gagner de l'argent il faut travailler, chacun pour soi, faire n'importe quoi mais travailler, exploitant celui qui est au-dessous, souffrant de celui qui est au-dessus, guettant sa place aussi. Stephen Dixon - à travers le personnage de Claude, acteur raté devenu barman - met formidablement en scène sa ville, toute entière soumise à l'argent, jusque dans ses lois, sa langue, son inhumanité. Le style de l'auteur, sans pause ni respiration, d'une linéarité inquiétante, accroît encore le pouvoir de fascination de ce roman.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Stephen Dixon was a novelist and short story author who published hundreds of stories in an incredible list of literary journals. Dixon was nominated for the National Book Award twice--in 1991 for Frog and in 1995 for Interstate--and his writing also earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize.

Reviews

[Jail Flanagain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Dixon's writing is hard to categorize or define which may be why he has evaded popular recognition. Is his writing hyperrealistic? In a way, it is but in another way it's as unreal and menacing as Kafka. For instance, Work is probably the most realistic novel about working in the restaraunt industry I've ever read but it also contains brilliant moments where a believable ocurrence is stretched to the point where it becomes like a classic nightmare of humiliation.