Zola’s books can be hard work. This is no.3 in the Rougon series; another completely different set of characters.
This is set in the Paris food markets around Les Halles, and features luxuriously lengthy descriptions of, inter alia, fruit and vegetables, pork, bacon and poultry (and all possible edible derivatives), and fish, both seafood and freshwater.
The plot, insofar as there is one, features a rather dour young man who was caught up in one of the revolutions, exiled in prison and now returns to Paris. Rather by chance he finds his brother now a successful pork butcher and lodges with the family, eventually getting a job as market inspector.
He is distrusted by most of the marketers and gets caught up again (rather unintentionally) in a 2nd phase of revolutionary activity, although he is pretty half hearted about it all.
The police, who had been keeping tabs on him all the while, arrest him again and most of the marketers are pleased to see the back of him. So was I to be honest, not a very inspiring book.
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