Jean-Pierre Martin worked in a factory before going back to school in the late 1970s and becoming the writer he is today.
In this book, he pays tribute to the people he knew in those years by giving them a voice. The factory is, first of all, the incessant noise, the heat, the smells. The risk of a terrible accident leading to mutilation or death. The relentless pace. And for women, the harassment from petty bosses. But it is also solidarity with Polish or Algerian comrades, friendship, and hardships faced together. It is the factory occupations of ’68, the kidnapping of Johnny in ’79, the end of USINOR, “Lorraine, heart of steel”, and so on. The Trente Glorieuses were not glorious for everyone, and they ended with the dismissal of tens of thousands of workers.
Alternating personal memories, confidences and epic poetry, Le Monde réel (The Real World) is a one-of-a-kind book. On the eve of an election year in which the reindustrialization of France will be much discussed, this work has the merit of recalling in very concrete terms what factory work really is.
