Reading guide: Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated by Frank Wynne

A unique insight into everything that passes under a security guard’s gaze, as well as a searingly witty deconstruction of colonial legacies and capitalist consumption.

Amidst the political bickering of the inhabitants of Paris’s Residence for Students from Côte d’Ivoire and the ever-changing landscape of French immigration policy, two generations of Ivoirians attempt to make their way as undocumented workers, taking shifts as security guards at a flour mill and department store. This sharply satirical yet poignant tale draws on the author’s own experiences as an undocumented student in France. 

About the author

GauZ’ is an Ivorian author and journalist, the editor-in-chief of a satirical economic newspaper, and has also written screenplays and documentary films. After studying biochemistry, he moved to Paris as an undocumented student, working as a security guard before returning to the Côte d’Ivoire. GauZ’’s first novel, Standing Heavy, was published in French in 2014 and won Le Prix des libraires Gibert Joseph. It was followed by Comrade Papa, which won the 2019 Prix Éthiophile, and Black Manoo.  

About the translator

Frank Wynne is an award-winning Irish writer and translator, from French and Spanish. Over a career spanning more than 20 years, Wynne has translated a wide variety of authors, including Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, Emiliano Monge, Alice Zeniter and Virginie Despentes. His translation of Vernon Subutex 1 was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2018. Wynne’s other translations have garnered a number of awards, including the 2002 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (jointly with the author) for Atomised by Michel Houellebecq and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (2005).

He has twice been awarded both the Scott Moncrieff Prize for translation from the French and the Premio Valle Inclán for translation from Spanish. Most recently, his translation of Animalia by Jean-Baptiste del Amo won the 2020 Republic of Consciousness Prize. He was Chair of judges for the International Booker Prize 2022.

In his interview with the Booker Prizes site, author GauZ’ expresses his delight at the judges’ decision to include Standing Heavy in the longlist, stating ‘such a prestigious victory would be a tribute to all the invisible people in society, those who pedal down in the hold so that the upper decks may peacefully enjoy their champagne and their caviar.’ The novel is an honest document of the lives of those whose labours are exploited and unacknowledged. How does the novel represent those who are marginalised by society and what is the importance of doing so? Does it compare with other cultural works that give a voice to ‘invisible’ members of society?

GauZ’ drew from his lived experience of working as a security guard in a department store in Paris. The job cast him as a silent observer of the ‘absurdity of consumerist society.’ He describes Standing Heavy as a work of ‘reverse’ ethnology. His writing feigns a cool detachment from its subject matter, in an attempt to study European culture. In what ways does the book read as an ethnological study and what does this interpretation add to the story and the reading experience? 

The novel is divided into three sections that cover different periods of immigration, described as the Bronze Age, the Golden Age and the Age of Lead. How does this conceit contribute to our understanding of the experiences of African migrants in France? Does it suggest their place in a wider history? 

Standing Heavy is marked by its unusual structure, with each section followed by brief snapshots of life as a security guard. Why do you think the author favours this fragmented approach over more straight-forward long-form writing? Does it portray the ennui of Standing Heavy more effectively? Or could those snapshots be seen as representing the action unfolding in front of a series of security cameras? The Booker judges said that the book’s fragmentary style reminded them of ‘different camera angles’.

Standing Heavy makes references to French, French colonial and African Diasporic history such as the 1974 French Presidential election and the 1996 Sans Papier movement. How does the author’s incorporation of these pivotal moments in history cultivate a sense of place and time? 

Standing Heavy does not focus on one individual, rather it offers a panoramic view of its chosen world. Does the novel’s wide-ranging and open perspective enable greater empathy for the characters it describes? 

The final section of Standing Heavy takes aim at the church of consumerism and the workers that are employed to safeguard the worshippers at shopping malls like Sephora. What do you make of the book’s criticism of capitalism and inequality?

The novel expresses a contradiction embodied in the African security guard. They are courted for their build, which typifies them as strong, aggressive, not to be tampered with, and makes them hypervisible. At the same time they exist on the margins of society as undocumented workers and are made invisible. What questions does the author wish to raise through his representation of this contradiction? 

The novel is concerned with power and who wields it. On the one hand the security guard casts a formidable figure to the everyday shopper, but GauZ’ also highlights their powerlessness and precarity amid wider social forces. What do you think of the novel’s depiction of power and powerlessness in contemporary society?