Synopses & Reviews
A meditation on the big-box superstore, from 2022 Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux
"A dryly charming look at the way the French live now, through the sharp eyes of its most acclaimed chronicler." — Kirkus Reviews
For half a century, French writer Annie Ernaux has restlessly explored stories and subjects often considered unworthy of artistic reflection. In this exquisite meditation, Ernaux turns her attention to the phenomenon of the big-box superstore, a ubiquitous feature of modern life that has received scant attention in literature.
Recording her visits to a single superstore near Paris for over a year, Ernaux captures the world that exists within its massive walls. Culture, class, and capitalism converge, reinscribing the individual's role and rank within society while absorbing individuality into the machine of mass consumerism. Through Ernaux's eyes, the superstore emerges as a "great human meeting place, a spectacle," a space where we come into direct contact with difference. She notes the unexpectedly intimate encounters between customers; how our collective desires are dictated by the daily, seasonal, and annual rhythms of the marketplace; and the ways that the built environment reveals the contours of gender and race in contemporary society.
With her relentless powers of observation, Annie Ernaux takes the measure of a place we thought we knew, calling us to question the experiences we overlook and to gaze more deeply into ordinary life.
Review
"An enjoyable take on the odd hub that the superstore is in modern society....Ernaux's observations make for an appealing little ramble." — M. A.Orthofer, Complete Review
Review
"This slim book enlarges our sense of ourselves, insisting as it does on how alike we are." — Booklist
Review
"A dryly charming look at the way the French live now, through the sharp eyes of its most acclaimed chronicler." — Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Annie Ernaux is the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature. She is the author of more than twenty books, including The Years, A Woman's Story, A Man's Place, Shame, and Simple Passion. Alison L. Strayer is an award-winning writer and translator.