‘At nine o’clock the man leaves the flat dressed in an elegant salmon-pink dress’.
FRIDAY A.M.
Silence except for the ticking of the alarm clock. The bedroom is in darkness though thin shafts of sunlight penetrate through cracks in the curtains from a big east-facing window and alight on the thick dark carpet. The door leading into a narrow passage and the rest of the flat faces n…
Sign in to Granta.com.
‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
‘‘Order is half of life’ – and the other half? – You get one guess.’
Extracts from Peter Handke’s notebook, translated by Peter Kuras.
‘Last year father attacked me as a “wet radish”. This caused me to give up writing diary entries.’
‘I was reassured to see that my hotel does not resemble the one in The Shining.’
Padma Viswanathan on the absurdities of the US Border Patrol Agency. ‘The new security was going to be unpredictable, by design.’
