Standing Heavy
{{short description|2014 novel by GauZ'}}{{Infobox book
| author = GauZ'
| isbn = 978-1-529-41443-1
| language = French
| country = Côte d'Ivoire
| genre = Satire, Literary fiction
| publisher = MacLehose Press
| title_orig = Debout-Payé
| translator = Frank Wynne
| release_date = 2014
| english_release_date = 2022
| pages = 168 pp
}}
Standing Heavy is a novel by Ivorian author GauZ'. Originally published in 2014 in French (as Debout-Payé), it was translated into English by Frank Wynne and published in 2022.
It was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023.{{Cite web |date=2022-05-26 |title=Standing Heavy: Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023 {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/standing-heavy |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=thebookerprizes.com |language=en}}
Plot
The novel follows a series of undocumented Ivorian immigrants in Paris who find work as security guards. Their constant observations provides a cutting commentary on colonial legacies, Western capitalism and Franco-African history.
The title refers to "all the various professions that require the employee to remain standing in order to earn a pittance.”
Critical Response
Standing Heavy was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023.
Writing in the Guardian, John Self said "This inventive and very funny debut novel offers a whistle-stop, whizz-bang tour of Franco-African history."{{Cite news |last=Self |first=John |date=2022-07-22 |title=The best recent translated fiction – review roundup |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/22/the-best-recent-translated-fiction-review-roundup |access-date=2024-06-04 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}
Berny Sèbe, in the Conversation, said Standing Heavy offers a "refreshing and often caustic take on the cultural and economic consequences of an encounter between western consumerism and capitalism and the acute African sense of observation and derision."