Nausea

Pages 41-80 begin with Antoine joining the Sunday processional through Little Prado, a section of the Couteau Vert neighborhood built around a church. The church, Place Sainte-Cécile-de-la-Mer (Saint Cécile’s on the sea) was built in the Couteau Vert as a compromise between the old-money and new-money families in an equidistant location between their respective neighborhoods. The church’s presence has led to a gentrification of the lower-class Couteau Vert. Antoine recalls the one original shop that stuck around near the church far longer than the others: a dingy insecticide shop. Antoine continues to meander the city, growing increasingly disconnected from the people and Sunday rituals taking place around him. He realizes that the weekend is the one time people are free from the habit of the week, yet they do not experience Antoine’s unease at the reality of existence. Antoine believes that they all feel dissatisfied, never able to find the perfect way to spend their one day of freedom in the week. Antoine manages to lose himself in the sights and sensations of the city, momentarily forgetting his anxiety over existence. He lives in the moment briefly for the day as he meanders the city.

Antoine receives a letter from