Reader For Hire by Raymond Jean: The Novel Cure for reading-induced loneliness

The Peirene Press novel is designed to be read in a single sitting

Ailment: Reading-induced loneliness

Cure: Reader for hire by Raymond Jean

Reading, like running, is a solitary pursuit. Indeed the purpose of such solo activity is often as much to revel in unaccompanied me-time as it is to absorb a book or work the muscles. But for the sedentary reader, the solitude can all too easily tip over into loneliness, and from there to a sense that one is missing out on life. If this strikes a chord, inoculate against it with Raymond Jean's Reader for Hire, a Peirene Press novel designed to be read in a single sitting.

Marie-Constance – married, no children – has no profession, but a rather lovely speaking voice. Her friend Françoise remarks on it one day, and suggests that working as a private reader could be just the thing. And so Marie-Constance places an ad in the local paper of the small town in France where she lives. Soon she has an eclectic bunch of clients, ranging from a paraplegic 15-year-old boy hungry for Baudelaire, to a septuagenarian desiring selected passages of Karl Marx, to the managing director of a global mining company, Michel.

Perhaps it's because the prose is too intoxicating to be shared, or perhaps it's because her clients have unspoken agendas of their own, but Marie-Constance soon finds that the act of reading has a startling effect – and not just on her clients. (Of course, this comes as no surprise to us.) Before she knows it, she has shared a deeply erotic charge with the 15-year-old boy, been ravished by the managing director, and been whisked off by an eight-year-old girl to a fair in the middle of the night with the family jewels around her neck.

Perhaps you, too, could hire a reader of your own with whom to bring literature to life – or offer your services as one to those in need. On the other hand, you might find in these pages a cautionary tale, and conclude that reading, like running, really is a pleasure best taken alone.

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