RTS Prize: Lorrain Voisard writes the daily life of a slaughterhouse

It is a powerful first novel which received the RTS Public Prize on Sunday in Fribourg. “At the heart of the beast”, by Lorrain Voisard, delves into the daily life of a rural French-speaking slaughterhouse, right down to the entrails of the animals. Reading the text does not leave you unscathed: it is difficult, then, not to think about it when faced with the meat on your plate…

Here is Arthur Jolissaint, a penniless intellectual who wants to confront a reality that consumers of steaks, sausages or charcuterie generally prefer to ignore. Recounting his months of work in a factory killing calves, cows and pigs, the narrator hides nothing of the blood that squirts, the fat that impregnates the conveyor belt of the butchering line, the pieces to be hung with dexterity, to name but a few. just a few examples. Without forgetting the cleaning of the installations using a chlorine solution to clear the way: an obvious task for the blue that it is.

Rather than a raw testimony, the young author born in Saint-Imier, also in the running for the City of Lausanne Book Prize, creates a literary text, where the cries of the animals mingle with the words of the workers. All men, except a worker and the veterinarian. Whether it is the chef and his summary and repetitive instructions, who calls the narrator “The Saint”, or Fred, who has worked since leaving compulsory school in slaughterhouses, and whose obsession Arthur does not know about talking about sex is a pathology or simple provocation.

There is also the endearing Hamza and his multiple jobs, who does not get used to night shifts despite the years, and who remains haunted by the question of knowing what the animals perceive of what will happen to them. Hamza who smiles at Arthur, who “doesn’t need to lie to smile back.” Because nothing is black or white in this book. Links are forged, and the narrator, who is there in transit, is careful not to take sides.

Taking a distance

The author, who notably cites the late Joseph Ponthus and his “À la ligne. Factory Sheets”, mixes these crude descriptions with more poetic parts, with an inner voice rendered in italics. It is also placed, at regular intervals, after her period of work at the factory, reflecting the point of view of an anti-speciesist activist, or that of a Hamza who decided to change path after one accident too many.

It is moreover “the humanity that emerges from the social exchanges to which he bears witness, through the poetry and formal audacity of his narration, as well as through the absence of definitive judgment on the industry that he observes and described”, which won over the jury, chaired by journalist Nicolas Julliard. The prize, awarded by French-speaking readers who explored around fifty works published this year, is worth 10,000 francs.

Did you find an error? Please report it to us.

0 comments