weird sentence in Pennac

[Clare H]

Hi, does anyone have any idea at all what this sentence, from one of Daniel Pennac's novels, is about? "Sur le palier du 4ieme, l'huissier stagiaire, ratatine au pied du mur, procedait maintenant par rafales breves, destinait essentiellement aux chaussures de son employeur" Hmm. It's the "procedait maintenant par rafales breves" that I really don't get... Merci! Clare

[Neil Coffey]

I think "destinait" is a typo for "destinées"??

 

So he's saying the huissier stagiaire was firing bursts of shots ("rafales") at the foot of the wall, and those bursts were mainly meant to hit his employer's shoes. I think that's what the words are saying, but I'd really need more context to actually make sense of it...!

[Erwan]

You can find the text here.

I'm sorry, I have'nt got enought time to read it.

[Clare H]

Thanks for the link, that's brilliant, I had spent ages trying to find the context! All clear now...

[Clare H]

Thanks. Someone pointed me in the right direction to find a bit more context from tthe novel... and it is basically referring to someone being sick! Like you I had got the gist but couldn't make sense of the metaphor, which now makes sense. Thanks for the help.

[Erwan]

That's means he was acting now by brief shots

There's a small typo in your text "destinait"->"destinées"