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Benoît Duteurtre

Translated by Bruce Benderson

In this devilish satire by one of France's most audacious social commentators, a man gets a state-of-the-art cellphone that, in spite of himself, he falls in love with. It really does seem as if it's going to make his life easier.

Except then he loses it. Luckily, he's a preferred customer, which is supposed to make it easy for him to get a replacement.

And so begins a long, fiendish descent down the rabbit hole known as "customer service." But our hero is determined to stay on the line...to outwit the phone menus...to outwait the hold muzak...to talk to the head of customer service, who wrote to him that all he needed to do was call, and he would be able to get back that time-saving convenience that made his life so much simpler...

PRESS AND REVIEWS

"…the recent financial collapse helps make this novella more relevant than ever. [It] is an entertaining book and yet another example of the great work Melville House is doing in their Contemporary Art of the Novella series."

—Three Percent Link

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An anarchic and controversial figure in France, BENOIT DUTEURTRE became a writer after Samuel Beckett praised his early work. Duteurtre went on to write 10 novels and win the coveted Prix Medici, and has been acclaimed by Milan Kundera and media philosopher Guy Dubord alike. The great-grandson of French President René Coty, Duteurtre is also the host of his own radio show, “Astonish Me, Benoit." His work has been translated into thirteen languages. This is his first book to be translated into English.

Bruce Benderson is the first American to receive the Prix de Flore. He is the author of two works of fiction, User and Pretending to Say No, and several works of nonfiction, including Toward the New Degeneracy. He is a translator of French literature who has worked as a journalist for numerous American and French publications, including The New York Times Magazine and Libération.

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