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Reader for Hire
A beautiful homage to the art of reading – light and funny. A celebration of the union of sensuality and language.
Marie-Constance loves reading and possesses an attractive voice. So, one day she decides to put an ad in the local paper offering her services as a paid reader. Her first client, a paralysed teenager, is transformed by her reading of a Maupassant short story. Marie-Constance’s fame spreads and soon the rich, the creative and the famous clamour for her services.
Marie-Constance loves reading and possesses an attractive voice. So, one day she decides to put an ad in the local paper offering her services as a paid reader. Her first client, a paralysed teenager, is transformed by her reading of a Maupassant short story. Marie-Constance’s fame spreads and soon the rich, the creative and the famous clamour for her services.
174 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1986
7 people are currently reading
266 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Jean
63 books6 followersRaymond Jean (1925–2012) wrote more than 40 books during his lifetime – novels, short-story collections and essays. He was awarded the Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle in 1983. His novella La Lectrice (Reader for Hire) became a cinema hit starring Miou-Miou. The film won the César Award for Best Supporting Actor and was named the best feature at the 1988 Montreal World Film Festival.
From http://www.peirenepress.com/books/cha...
From http://www.peirenepress.com/books/cha...
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June 16, 2024#should I stay or should I go #8
DNF/lido na diagonal até 70%
O que é pior do que ter um livro que, afinal, não nos interessa? É ter o mesmo livro em duas versões diferentes. Em minha defesa, alego que uma intitula-se “A Leitora” e foi comprada mais recentemente e a outra, em inglês, “Reader for Hire”, foi comprada há uns 10 anos, mas a ideia é tão apelativa que não admira que me tenha chamado a atenção duas vezes.
Marie-Constance, 34 anos, casada, sem filhos nem profissão, com um curso de Letras inacabado, achando que tem uma bela voz, aceita a sugestão de uma amiga: “Porque é que não pões um anúncio nos jornais a propor fazer leitura a domicílio?”
Encantada com a ideia de ler Zola e Maupassant a idosos e inválidos, a protagonista passa a descrever os seus atributos… físicos.
Sou alta, estreita em cima e larga em baixo. (…) Tenho os lábios cheios e carnudos, e a minha pele faz lembrar mais o pêssego do que a pena. (…) Tenho os braços magros, cintura fina e seios bem separados, talvez demasiado grandes para o meu busto, mas descobri que isso podia ser bastante favorável em várias circunstâncias. [QUAIS EXACTAMENTE?!]
Aspirante a leitora ou a atriz de filme com bolinha vermelha? No sonho molhado de Raymond Jean, são decerto uma e a mesma coisa.
Se o primeiro freguês, adolescente e paraplégico, fica platonicamente fascinado com a forma como ela abana o tecido do vestido sobre as pernas num dia de calor, já o segundo, o director de uma empresa, na posse de todas as suas faculdades motoras, se mostra mais afoito e, depois de muitas abordagens e avanços, eis a derradeira leitura:
Não tenho dificuldade em me agachar sobre ele, em cavalgá-lo amorosamente. (…) Digo-lhe que em amor convém não apressar as coisas, fazê-las durar, e proponho-lhe retomar a leitura que interrompemos, uma vez que o livro está ali (…) Procuro-o, encontro-o, abro-o, leio.
Apesar de ter Raymond Jean ter recebido algures no tempo o Prémio Goncourt, diria que se perdeu um grande talento na área do soft porn. Um talento assim-assim, vá…
DNF/lido na diagonal até 70%
O que é pior do que ter um livro que, afinal, não nos interessa? É ter o mesmo livro em duas versões diferentes. Em minha defesa, alego que uma intitula-se “A Leitora” e foi comprada mais recentemente e a outra, em inglês, “Reader for Hire”, foi comprada há uns 10 anos, mas a ideia é tão apelativa que não admira que me tenha chamado a atenção duas vezes.
Marie-Constance, 34 anos, casada, sem filhos nem profissão, com um curso de Letras inacabado, achando que tem uma bela voz, aceita a sugestão de uma amiga: “Porque é que não pões um anúncio nos jornais a propor fazer leitura a domicílio?”
Encantada com a ideia de ler Zola e Maupassant a idosos e inválidos, a protagonista passa a descrever os seus atributos… físicos.
Sou alta, estreita em cima e larga em baixo. (…) Tenho os lábios cheios e carnudos, e a minha pele faz lembrar mais o pêssego do que a pena. (…) Tenho os braços magros, cintura fina e seios bem separados, talvez demasiado grandes para o meu busto, mas descobri que isso podia ser bastante favorável em várias circunstâncias. [QUAIS EXACTAMENTE?!]
Aspirante a leitora ou a atriz de filme com bolinha vermelha? No sonho molhado de Raymond Jean, são decerto uma e a mesma coisa.
Se o primeiro freguês, adolescente e paraplégico, fica platonicamente fascinado com a forma como ela abana o tecido do vestido sobre as pernas num dia de calor, já o segundo, o director de uma empresa, na posse de todas as suas faculdades motoras, se mostra mais afoito e, depois de muitas abordagens e avanços, eis a derradeira leitura:
Não tenho dificuldade em me agachar sobre ele, em cavalgá-lo amorosamente. (…) Digo-lhe que em amor convém não apressar as coisas, fazê-las durar, e proponho-lhe retomar a leitura que interrompemos, uma vez que o livro está ali (…) Procuro-o, encontro-o, abro-o, leio.
Apesar de ter Raymond Jean ter recebido algures no tempo o Prémio Goncourt, diria que se perdeu um grande talento na área do soft porn. Um talento assim-assim, vá…
January 23, 2016
This short novel is hard to pass comment on: a light breeze, a soft squeeze, a cracker with cheese, all these, if you please, I hate to tease, so . . . An attractive woman visits various homes and reads passages from Maupassant, Marx (Karl), Perec, and Pope Clement VII to a wheelchaired teenager, an eccentric Marxist-aristocrat, a sex-starved corporate loon, and a small child deprived of amusement, and attempts to engage her readees in the act of being readed. The novel features no pat lessons on the wondrous transcendence of reading (which might have been welcome), but focuses instead on whimsical comedy, and the heroine’s often smug superiority to everyone else, which proves amusing for the short duration.
June 6, 2018
Another coquettish, 2-dimensional, flirtatious female character written by a man. The blurb says "a book that will make you want to read more books". Aye, true. Just any book other than this.
Read
March 8, 2019Ah yes. The book of "my breasts are nicely separated" fame. Vomit.
October 21, 2015
[3.5] The book equivalent of one of those frothy, colourful French comedy-dramas (just because it has subtitles, and mentions Baudelaire once or twice, doesn't mean it's highbrow): ephemeral, occasionally questionable, overall quite fun, and unselfconsciously performing a popular idea of Frenchness. Thanks to a recent discussion thread for inspiring that last phrase.
The book was also rather 80s: not that it's about New Romantics and yuppies, simply that the combination of all the characters' social attitudes and circumstances together would be uncharacteristic of a time much earlier or much later. (Perhaps the most obviously 80s moment was the appearance of joggers. Did the average 'runners' going along the street in 2005 or 2015 go faster than the 'joggers' of 1985? Possibly not, but 'running' has always sounded more demanding - to one who grew up at the point in time when 'jogging' was slow and routine, and 'running' meant the all-out effort for a race or school sports day.)
My favourite character in Reader for Hire was almost the eccentric, elderly, Communist, expat Hungarian countess, but aspects of her lifestyle were sadly incongruous and unconvincing.
A curious absence at the heart of the book: the central character reads to people for work - but there is almost nothing about the physical experience of reading aloud for long periods, not so much as a drink in case of a dry mouth. Had the author even tried it? A first-person narrative was evidently chosen to echo the experience of being read to - but the story's relative lack of interiority (which suggested a film) would have been more natural in third person.
Having become disillusioned with Peirene Press lately, I only read this because I thought it would be eligible for next year's International Booker - but no: the author is deceased, so it wouldn't be. Doh. However, it was not in the least a slog, and too short to seem a waste of time: a diverting bit of fluff.
The book was also rather 80s: not that it's about New Romantics and yuppies, simply that the combination of all the characters' social attitudes and circumstances together would be uncharacteristic of a time much earlier or much later. (Perhaps the most obviously 80s moment was the appearance of joggers. Did the average 'runners' going along the street in 2005 or 2015 go faster than the 'joggers' of 1985? Possibly not, but 'running' has always sounded more demanding - to one who grew up at the point in time when 'jogging' was slow and routine, and 'running' meant the all-out effort for a race or school sports day.)
My favourite character in Reader for Hire was almost the eccentric, elderly, Communist, expat Hungarian countess, but aspects of her lifestyle were sadly incongruous and unconvincing.
A curious absence at the heart of the book: the central character reads to people for work - but there is almost nothing about the physical experience of reading aloud for long periods, not so much as a drink in case of a dry mouth. Had the author even tried it? A first-person narrative was evidently chosen to echo the experience of being read to - but the story's relative lack of interiority (which suggested a film) would have been more natural in third person.
Having become disillusioned with Peirene Press lately, I only read this because I thought it would be eligible for next year's International Booker - but no: the author is deceased, so it wouldn't be. Doh. However, it was not in the least a slog, and too short to seem a waste of time: a diverting bit of fluff.
September 21, 2016
The French bestseller Reader for Hire by Raymond Jean has recently been published by Peirene Press, as part of their Chance Encounter series. Published as La Lectrice in 1986, Reader for Hire has been translated by Adriana Hunter. The blurb heralds it ‘a beautiful homage to the art of reading – light and funny. A celebration of the union of sensuality and language’, and Cosmopolitan deems it ‘a book that will make you want to read more books’.
Marie-Constance is our protagonist. The self-confessed owner of ‘an attractive voice’, she decides to place an advert in three local newspapers to ‘offer her services as a paid reader’. After her first success, her ‘fame spreads and soon the rich, the creative and the famous clamour for her services’. Meike Ziervogel, the founder of Peirene, writes that, ‘As you turn the pages, think of Marie-Constance as the personification of reading itself. And I promise you an experience you will never forget’.
The introductory paragraph is at once engrossing and rather beguiling: ‘Let me introduce myself: Marie-Constance G., thirty-four years old, one husband, no children, no profession. I listened to the sound of my own voice yesterday. It was in the little blue room in our apartment, the one we call the “echo chamber”. I recited some verses of Baudelaire I happened to remember. It struck me that my voice was really rather nice. But can we truly hear ourselves?’ The first person perspective works marvellously, and the female narrative voice which Jean has cultivated feels as realistic as it possibly could for the most part.
Marie-Constance’s first client is a fourteen-year-old paraplegic named Eric, whose mother believes that ‘he needs contact with the outside world’. The narrator’s observations about characters are quite originally written; of Eric’s mother, for example, she tells us the following: ‘Her mouth is busy talking, her floppy lips moving very quickly, her breath coming in acidic wafts. A touching woman, in her rather milky forties’. The subsequent cast of characters is varied. As well as Eric, we have a former University tutor of Marie-Constance’s, who aids her in her new endeavour; an eighty-year-old Hungarian countess with a passion for Marxism; and a frenzied businessman who desperately wants to learn how to love literature. The protagonists are different to the extent that the social history which Jean makes use of through them is incredibly rich and diverse. The most unlikely friendships are struck within Reader for Hire, and this is a definite strength within the framework of the whole.
Seasonal changes are well wrought, and there is a real sense of time moving on whilst experience and expertise are gained. The whole has been so carefully translated that it is easy to forget that English is not its original language. The novella feels rather original; I for one haven’t read anything quite like it before. On the surface, Reader for Hire is a book about books; in reality, it is so much more than that, constructed as it is from a plethora of depths and intrigues.
Stories are nestled within stories here; portions of Maupassant, for example, sit alongside past experiences of Marie-Constance’s clients, and the circumstances which have led them to require her services. A whirlwind tour of French literature ensues, and Jean exemplifies, above all, as to why books – and the pleasure of reading itself – matter, and how the very act of opening a novel and sharing it with a confidante can transform a life. We are shown the power that words are able to hold. Reader for Hire is a real tribute to the arts, and to the importance of literature. In these times of social cuts and austerity for some of the very groups which Jean places focus upon – the elderly and the disabled – one cannot help but think that such a job as Marie-Constance’s would hold an awful lot of usefulness.
Marie-Constance is our protagonist. The self-confessed owner of ‘an attractive voice’, she decides to place an advert in three local newspapers to ‘offer her services as a paid reader’. After her first success, her ‘fame spreads and soon the rich, the creative and the famous clamour for her services’. Meike Ziervogel, the founder of Peirene, writes that, ‘As you turn the pages, think of Marie-Constance as the personification of reading itself. And I promise you an experience you will never forget’.
The introductory paragraph is at once engrossing and rather beguiling: ‘Let me introduce myself: Marie-Constance G., thirty-four years old, one husband, no children, no profession. I listened to the sound of my own voice yesterday. It was in the little blue room in our apartment, the one we call the “echo chamber”. I recited some verses of Baudelaire I happened to remember. It struck me that my voice was really rather nice. But can we truly hear ourselves?’ The first person perspective works marvellously, and the female narrative voice which Jean has cultivated feels as realistic as it possibly could for the most part.
Marie-Constance’s first client is a fourteen-year-old paraplegic named Eric, whose mother believes that ‘he needs contact with the outside world’. The narrator’s observations about characters are quite originally written; of Eric’s mother, for example, she tells us the following: ‘Her mouth is busy talking, her floppy lips moving very quickly, her breath coming in acidic wafts. A touching woman, in her rather milky forties’. The subsequent cast of characters is varied. As well as Eric, we have a former University tutor of Marie-Constance’s, who aids her in her new endeavour; an eighty-year-old Hungarian countess with a passion for Marxism; and a frenzied businessman who desperately wants to learn how to love literature. The protagonists are different to the extent that the social history which Jean makes use of through them is incredibly rich and diverse. The most unlikely friendships are struck within Reader for Hire, and this is a definite strength within the framework of the whole.
Seasonal changes are well wrought, and there is a real sense of time moving on whilst experience and expertise are gained. The whole has been so carefully translated that it is easy to forget that English is not its original language. The novella feels rather original; I for one haven’t read anything quite like it before. On the surface, Reader for Hire is a book about books; in reality, it is so much more than that, constructed as it is from a plethora of depths and intrigues.
Stories are nestled within stories here; portions of Maupassant, for example, sit alongside past experiences of Marie-Constance’s clients, and the circumstances which have led them to require her services. A whirlwind tour of French literature ensues, and Jean exemplifies, above all, as to why books – and the pleasure of reading itself – matter, and how the very act of opening a novel and sharing it with a confidante can transform a life. We are shown the power that words are able to hold. Reader for Hire is a real tribute to the arts, and to the importance of literature. In these times of social cuts and austerity for some of the very groups which Jean places focus upon – the elderly and the disabled – one cannot help but think that such a job as Marie-Constance’s would hold an awful lot of usefulness.
March 12, 2025
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐⭐
~
• fiction literary
• adventurous, lighthearted, reflective, medium-paced
~
TW: sexism
~
Prima mea întâlnire cu Raymond Jean a fost una ... interesantă.
~
Povestea noastră este despre o femeie care și-a abandonat studiile de Litere și care se plictisește acasă. Ca să schimbe monotonia din viața sa decide să de-a un anunț în ziar prin care își oferă serviciile de a citi la domiciliul clientului. Evident că există oameni aflați în nevoie și le prinde bine un serviciu ca acesta, dar mai sunt și indivizi care iau anunțul femeii doar ca pe un mesaj criptat pentru ...alte servicii "femeiești" să le spunem.
~
Sincer nu știam ce mă așteaptă atunci când am început cartea și asta a făcut întâlnirea mea cu povestea și mai frumoasă decât e. Evident e genul de carte în care femeile care poartă ochelari și citesc sunt sexualizate exact ca în realitate, lucru care mi-a revoltat puțin stomacul. Trebuie să fi pregătit de o poveste simplă, dar care, pe alocuri, poate fi mai greu de digerat.
A fost genul de carte care mi-a plăcut în ciuda faptului că nu am putut empatiza cu nici un personaj din poveste datorită acțiunilor lor mai mult sau mai puțin morale.
~
• fiction literary
• adventurous, lighthearted, reflective, medium-paced
~
TW: sexism
~
Prima mea întâlnire cu Raymond Jean a fost una ... interesantă.
~
Povestea noastră este despre o femeie care și-a abandonat studiile de Litere și care se plictisește acasă. Ca să schimbe monotonia din viața sa decide să de-a un anunț în ziar prin care își oferă serviciile de a citi la domiciliul clientului. Evident că există oameni aflați în nevoie și le prinde bine un serviciu ca acesta, dar mai sunt și indivizi care iau anunțul femeii doar ca pe un mesaj criptat pentru ...alte servicii "femeiești" să le spunem.
~
Sincer nu știam ce mă așteaptă atunci când am început cartea și asta a făcut întâlnirea mea cu povestea și mai frumoasă decât e. Evident e genul de carte în care femeile care poartă ochelari și citesc sunt sexualizate exact ca în realitate, lucru care mi-a revoltat puțin stomacul. Trebuie să fi pregătit de o poveste simplă, dar care, pe alocuri, poate fi mai greu de digerat.
A fost genul de carte care mi-a plăcut în ciuda faptului că nu am putut empatiza cu nici un personaj din poveste datorită acțiunilor lor mai mult sau mai puțin morale.
May 17, 2023
Die erste Hälfte hat mir wirklich gut gefallen. Danach wurde es irgendwie absurd und hat mich total verloren. Wäre es nicht so kurz, hätte ich abgebrochen. 2,5 Sterne
April 21, 2025
Die Vorleserin von Raymond Jean lässt sich durch die kurzen Kapitel angenehm und schnell lesen. Inhaltlich konnte mich das Buch jedoch nicht überzeugen – die Geschichte wirkte auf mich banal und zum Ende hin sogar absurd. Schon zu Beginn hatte ich mit dem Gedanken gespielt, es abzubrechen, aber aufgrund der Kürze habe ich es dann doch beendet.
Besonders problematisch fand ich die Darstellung der Figur Marie-Constance: Sie wird durchgehend hypersexualisiert, und es gibt sogar ein ganzes Kapitel, das sich ausschließlich mit ihrem Aussehen beschäftigt – ohne erkennbaren Mehrwert für die Handlung. Das wirkte auf mich überflüssig und unangemessen. Insgesamt leider kein Buch, das bei mir einen bleibenden Eindruck hinterlassen hat.
Besonders problematisch fand ich die Darstellung der Figur Marie-Constance: Sie wird durchgehend hypersexualisiert, und es gibt sogar ein ganzes Kapitel, das sich ausschließlich mit ihrem Aussehen beschäftigt – ohne erkennbaren Mehrwert für die Handlung. Das wirkte auf mich überflüssig und unangemessen. Insgesamt leider kein Buch, das bei mir einen bleibenden Eindruck hinterlassen hat.
September 7, 2019
"My breasts are nicely separated"
May 1, 2020
Silly book. Not worth it.
The main character is impossible to relate to.
The main character is impossible to relate to.
February 29, 2024
le male gaze à vomir
June 16, 2020
Absolument délicieux, et l'une des scènes de sexe les plus drôles que j'ai jamais lues.
Absolutely delightful, and one of the funniest sex scenes I have ever read.
Absolutely delightful, and one of the funniest sex scenes I have ever read.
June 16, 2020
Absolument délicieux, et l'une des scènes de sexe les plus drôles que j'ai jamais lues.
Absolutely delightful, and one of the funniest sex scenes I have ever read.
Absolutely delightful, and one of the funniest sex scenes I have ever read.
December 16, 2018
кумедна маленька штучка, якій, щоб стати справді хорошою, чогось виразно бракує: чи то любові до книжок, чи то сюжетної інтриги, чи то бодай якихось виявів харизми головної героїні, крім усезагального бажання її трахнути. навіть одного з трьох було б достатньо.
February 19, 2025
Un alt fel de voxa pe acele vremuri.
Mi-as fi dorit sa văd eroina un pic mai puternică, nu atât de fragilă și pierdută pe alocuri.
Mi-a plăcut modul în care valoarea cărților a fost interpretată diferit de fiecare ascultător al Mariei
Recomand, o lectură ușoară
Mi-as fi dorit sa văd eroina un pic mai puternică, nu atât de fragilă și pierdută pe alocuri.
Mi-a plăcut modul în care valoarea cărților a fost interpretată diferit de fiecare ascultător al Mariei
Recomand, o lectură ușoară
Read
June 14, 2022Awful. Trite, typically French misogynist fantasy with failed Oulipo ambitions. Avoid.
October 26, 2024
This feels very dated even in comparison to only about five years ago. Bits of it were an absolute joy but other parts left me feeling very ‘icky’. The sensuality of reading seems to be the cornerstone of the plot so complaining that there are too many allusions to sex and the female form is absolutely missing the point so safe to say that this just really wasn’t for me.
February 22, 2021
I'm enjoying catching up on my own Peirene Press reading, and this one is a light and amusing read. I'm equally having doubts about Reader for Hire. This independent female narrator, whose voice has a seductive influence on her clients who pay for her reading services, ultimately does not know herself. The male characters warn her where this might be headed and they turn out to be right. Hmm. I've had to downgrade this to 2 stars because although I did enjoy reading this, and the narrator does retain her agency throughout, I can't decide if the wry comedy is masking misogny.
March 14, 2024
5*****/5*****.
January 30, 2025
Groaznic, am fost scarbita.
Credeam ca voi avea parte de altceva...
Credeam ca voi avea parte de altceva...
March 10, 2023
Marie-Constance ist Mitte dreißig, verheiratet, kinder- und arbeitslos. Und obwohl ihr Bauchnabel nach ihrem Dafürhalten nicht ganz mittig ist, ist sie dennoch eine attraktive Erscheinung, mit einer Stimme die zum Träumen einlädt. Durch ihre Freundin kommt sie auf die Idee, anderen etwas aus Büchern vorzulesen. Schnell ist die Anzeige mit junge Frau liest vor geschaltet und die Warnung ihrer Umwelt, das so mancher das missverständlich auffassen könnte, schlägt sie in den Wind. Zunächst hat Marie-Constance auch Erfolg. Zu ihren Kunden gehören, ein 14 jähriger spastisch gelähmter Junge, eine 80 jährige Revoluzzerin, ein 7 jähriges vernachlässigtes Mädchen und ein Wirtschaftsmanager, der sich bilden möchte. Als eben jener Wirtschaftsmanager Annäherungsversuche startet, beginnt sie zu ahnen wovor sie alle eindringlich gewarnt haben.
Ich würde jetzt nicht so weit gehen, das Buch als Hommage an das Lesen zu bezeichnen, denn auch wenn es den Titel Die Vorleserin trägt, geht es doch hauptsächlich um Erotik. Für meinen Geschmack ist die Hauptfigur viel zu naiv. Sie sieht sich als Retterin des Abendlandes, in dem sie einen Kreuzzug führt mit französischen Klassikern unterm Arm. Dabei ignoriert sie mehr als eine Warnung sich in Acht zu nehmen, dass sie eher die unteren denn die oberen Regionen bei ihren männlichen Klienten anspricht. Sie ist dann auch noch so dumm eine Affäre mit dem Manager zu beginnen, die von ihrem doch sehr gefühlskalten Mann geduldet, ja sogar begrüßt wird, nur um am Ende des Buches festzustellen das alle Warnungen berechtigt waren und sie den Job an den Nagel hängt. Die kleinbürgerliche Art des Polizisten, hätte ich mir auch eher in einem kommunistischen Regime vorstellen können, aber nicht Ende des 20. Jhd. in Frankreich. Die Figuren waren alle durch die Bank verschroben. Bis auf die 80jährige Gräfin, soviel Überzeugung hätte ich in dem Alter auch gern noch.
Die ganze Geschichte ist irgendwie seltsam, sie las sich zwar leicht, aber mir wurde mit unter schwindlig vom vielen Kopfschütteln.
Ich würde jetzt nicht so weit gehen, das Buch als Hommage an das Lesen zu bezeichnen, denn auch wenn es den Titel Die Vorleserin trägt, geht es doch hauptsächlich um Erotik. Für meinen Geschmack ist die Hauptfigur viel zu naiv. Sie sieht sich als Retterin des Abendlandes, in dem sie einen Kreuzzug führt mit französischen Klassikern unterm Arm. Dabei ignoriert sie mehr als eine Warnung sich in Acht zu nehmen, dass sie eher die unteren denn die oberen Regionen bei ihren männlichen Klienten anspricht. Sie ist dann auch noch so dumm eine Affäre mit dem Manager zu beginnen, die von ihrem doch sehr gefühlskalten Mann geduldet, ja sogar begrüßt wird, nur um am Ende des Buches festzustellen das alle Warnungen berechtigt waren und sie den Job an den Nagel hängt. Die kleinbürgerliche Art des Polizisten, hätte ich mir auch eher in einem kommunistischen Regime vorstellen können, aber nicht Ende des 20. Jhd. in Frankreich. Die Figuren waren alle durch die Bank verschroben. Bis auf die 80jährige Gräfin, soviel Überzeugung hätte ich in dem Alter auch gern noch.
Die ganze Geschichte ist irgendwie seltsam, sie las sich zwar leicht, aber mir wurde mit unter schwindlig vom vielen Kopfschütteln.
July 28, 2015
Marie-Constance is looking for some kind of occupation to fill her time; even though she never finished her university degree, she loves literature and decides she will hire herself out to strangers for reading sessions. When she puts an ad in the local newspaper offering her services, the editor is skeptical and warns her that people might get other ideas about what she is offering.
The novella almost reads like a series of short stories as Marie-Constance meets and reads to a very different and interesting cast of characters. Her first client is a disabled teenager who goes into an epileptic fit when Marie reads him Maupassant’s short story The Hand. After this traumatic experience, she decides that poetry might be a better choice for him and as she reads to him he seems to be emotionally and physically moved not only by her reading choices but also by her voice.
Marie-Constance also takes on an old woman who is a Hungarian countess that was married to a former French general. The countess still staunchly clings to her communist roots and has Marie read to her from the tomes of Marx. The old woman also tries to participate in the local unions attempts at a rally by waving her communist flag out her bedroom window.
The men who hire Marie for her services are the most interesting characters in the book. On the surface, they all want to better themselves by learning more about literature. But as Marie’s voice lulls them into feelings of peace and tranquility, their other manly senses seems to kick in as well. The final scene in the book is hilarious and Marie learns that the editor at the newspaper might have been right after all about what her listeners are expecting from her services.
This is a clever, funny, unique and interesting novella from Peirene Press. This is the perfect title to bring with you to the beach for a quick, delightful read.
The novella almost reads like a series of short stories as Marie-Constance meets and reads to a very different and interesting cast of characters. Her first client is a disabled teenager who goes into an epileptic fit when Marie reads him Maupassant’s short story The Hand. After this traumatic experience, she decides that poetry might be a better choice for him and as she reads to him he seems to be emotionally and physically moved not only by her reading choices but also by her voice.
Marie-Constance also takes on an old woman who is a Hungarian countess that was married to a former French general. The countess still staunchly clings to her communist roots and has Marie read to her from the tomes of Marx. The old woman also tries to participate in the local unions attempts at a rally by waving her communist flag out her bedroom window.
The men who hire Marie for her services are the most interesting characters in the book. On the surface, they all want to better themselves by learning more about literature. But as Marie’s voice lulls them into feelings of peace and tranquility, their other manly senses seems to kick in as well. The final scene in the book is hilarious and Marie learns that the editor at the newspaper might have been right after all about what her listeners are expecting from her services.
This is a clever, funny, unique and interesting novella from Peirene Press. This is the perfect title to bring with you to the beach for a quick, delightful read.
June 14, 2015
When Marie-Constance goes to put an advert in a local newspaper offering her services as a reader to people in their own homes, the clerk tries to dissuade her. Readers will guess what’s in his mind when he points out the potential for misinterpretation, but Marie-Constance is adamant. Her ex-tutor, Roland Sora, is also concerned for her personal safety, suggesting she stick to “the minor naturalists. They’re precise, they have stories, events, facts …” (p12). When the first response to her advert arrives, Marie-Constance hesitates. But she enjoys reading Maupassant’s ‘The Hand’ to wheelchair-bound fourteen-year-old Eric, until he becomes so engrossed in the supernatural story he’s hospitalised with an epileptic fit.
Despite this shaky start, her business flourishes. But in the age of audiobooks (although before the arrival of the internet), what do people really want when they invite her into their homes to read? What is Marie-Constance looking for herself when she sets herself up as a professional reader, and how far will she go for the sake of her craft?
Full review http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdo...
Despite this shaky start, her business flourishes. But in the age of audiobooks (although before the arrival of the internet), what do people really want when they invite her into their homes to read? What is Marie-Constance looking for herself when she sets herself up as a professional reader, and how far will she go for the sake of her craft?
Full review http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdo...
December 10, 2020
This was one of those really great surprises you come across while browsing -- in this case, at Hatchard's at St. Pancras station.
'Reader for Hire' was a delight because it's about a young woman...who loves to read...and decides to read to people for as a career. Really can't go wrong with that. Added to that was the sense of humour, all the men falling for her and her mildly curious but mostly indifferent point of view. Again, a win-win.
Loved the post-modern style of writing, the lack of any quotation marks in direct speech and the very French-ness of it all!
The binding of this paperback book is really beautiful, which lead me to look up the publishers online. Peirene Press turned out to be this unique publishing house and I ended up subscribing to their books. Looking forward to their events -- promises wine and author talks!
'Reader for Hire' was a delight because it's about a young woman...who loves to read...and decides to read to people for as a career. Really can't go wrong with that. Added to that was the sense of humour, all the men falling for her and her mildly curious but mostly indifferent point of view. Again, a win-win.
Loved the post-modern style of writing, the lack of any quotation marks in direct speech and the very French-ness of it all!
The binding of this paperback book is really beautiful, which lead me to look up the publishers online. Peirene Press turned out to be this unique publishing house and I ended up subscribing to their books. Looking forward to their events -- promises wine and author talks!
March 5, 2016
4.5 Stars. Reader for Hire is an odd little read. While it made me cringe a few times, I adored the way Marie-Constance developed as a character. And the ending was full of win!
June 17, 2024
"A book that will make you want to read more books", says the quote from Cosmopolitan on the cover.
Well, it made me want to read more books that aren't *this* book, at any rate.
It starts promisingly enough - I was rather enjoying its whimsical flow, its lightness of touch. And then comes page 49: "Perhaps the time has come for me to describe myself... my arms are slim, my waist is slim and my breasts are nicely separated - a little too copious for my chest, granted, but I've found this to be a considerable asset in plenty of situations..."
Oh FFS, this novel with a female narrator written by a man is *really* written by a man, eh?
It's sadly all downhill from here, like a pretentious French literary version of one of those low-rent 1970s sex comedies, only without the humour or depth of characterisation. By the final quarter, I was getting actively angry with it.
In other words, far from being an exploration of the power of literature to move, inspire, and change lives, as its promotional blurb - and the first 50 pages - promises, it's altogether more boring.
Well, it made me want to read more books that aren't *this* book, at any rate.
It starts promisingly enough - I was rather enjoying its whimsical flow, its lightness of touch. And then comes page 49: "Perhaps the time has come for me to describe myself... my arms are slim, my waist is slim and my breasts are nicely separated - a little too copious for my chest, granted, but I've found this to be a considerable asset in plenty of situations..."
Oh FFS, this novel with a female narrator written by a man is *really* written by a man, eh?
It's sadly all downhill from here, like a pretentious French literary version of one of those low-rent 1970s sex comedies, only without the humour or depth of characterisation. By the final quarter, I was getting actively angry with it.
In other words, far from being an exploration of the power of literature to move, inspire, and change lives, as its promotional blurb - and the first 50 pages - promises, it's altogether more boring.
March 12, 2018
It shouldn't really work: an erotic comedy (or comedy erotica) about a young woman who creates her own profession of going to people's houses and reading aloud to them, and has such a mesmerising voice that she causes all sorts of increasingly bizarre havoc.
I came close to nope-ing out at the point when the female protagonist started cataloguing her body parts for us while gazing into a mirror (her breasts are pleasantly separated, don't you know). But on balance, with its eccentric cast of characters and the way it revels in others' words, this short novel stays just the right side of farce - which is to say, it's more farcical than erotic, and the protagonist is nearly always in control of the situations she finds herself in, even when she's utterly bemused by how people are reacting to her.
I came close to nope-ing out at the point when the female protagonist started cataloguing her body parts for us while gazing into a mirror (her breasts are pleasantly separated, don't you know). But on balance, with its eccentric cast of characters and the way it revels in others' words, this short novel stays just the right side of farce - which is to say, it's more farcical than erotic, and the protagonist is nearly always in control of the situations she finds herself in, even when she's utterly bemused by how people are reacting to her.
January 9, 2024
Deze novelle verscheen in Engelse vertaling in de Peirene Series van 2015. Ik gaf er uiteraard de voorkeur aan het werk in het oorspronkelijke Frans te lezen.
Het uitgangspunt van het verhaal is briljant: een vrouw die graag voorleest, wil van haar talent een "beroep" maken. Al snel heeft zij enkele klanten en zonder het te beseffen verwerft zij een zekere macht over hen. Maar anderzijds gebruiken diezelfde klanten haar talent ook in hun eigen voordeel. Zodoende worden we als lezer geconfronteerd met die eeuwige vraagstelling: hoe opent lezen deuren naar de werkelijkheid en hoe modelleer lezen onze eigen persoonlijkheid.
Nochtans komt het werk van Raymond Jean naar mijn gevoel niet echt van de grond. Er zitten goede passages in, maar het geheel kon beter, diepgaander, dramatischer... en het einde laat absoluut te wensen over.
Het uitgangspunt van het verhaal is briljant: een vrouw die graag voorleest, wil van haar talent een "beroep" maken. Al snel heeft zij enkele klanten en zonder het te beseffen verwerft zij een zekere macht over hen. Maar anderzijds gebruiken diezelfde klanten haar talent ook in hun eigen voordeel. Zodoende worden we als lezer geconfronteerd met die eeuwige vraagstelling: hoe opent lezen deuren naar de werkelijkheid en hoe modelleer lezen onze eigen persoonlijkheid.
Nochtans komt het werk van Raymond Jean naar mijn gevoel niet echt van de grond. Er zitten goede passages in, maar het geheel kon beter, diepgaander, dramatischer... en het einde laat absoluut te wensen over.
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