Michel Houellebecq

Dans une France assez proche de la nôtre, un homme s'engage dans la carrière universitaire. Peu motivé par l'enseignement, il s'attend à une vie ennuyeuse mais calme, protégée des grands drames historiques. Cependant les forces en jeu dans le pays ont fissuré le système politique jusqu'à provoquer son effondrement. Cette implosion sans soubresauts, sans vraie révolution, se développe comme un mauvais rêve. Le talent de l'auteur, sa force visionnaire nous entraînent sur un terrain ambigu et glissant ; son regard sur notre civilisation vieillissante fait coexister dans ce roman les intuitions poétiques, les effets comiques, une mélancolie fataliste. Ce livre est une saisissante fable politique et morale. [4éme de couv.]

Soumission

jack

feel weird abt this one. wanted to give it two stars but feel compelled to bump it up another. obviously bigoted and reactionary and annoyingly disaffected at times but it’s fascinating. has really good moments and the ending perfectly executed. it’s kind of like handmaid’s tale for reactionary french dudes but it rules

The day after I finished reading the book, Houellebecq was in the spotlight for an interview in which is revealed how much a bigot he is — according to Le Monde. I haven’t read the interview. I loved the book, and took the preposterous characterizations of Islam for silly caricature — one of the pleasures of reading Houellebecq is how he nonchalantly shoots down anything and everything. I thought the book was a humorous, self-deprecating way to mock his own irrational fears. And maybe it was that, or partially that? An aging white man grappling with the prospect of death makes up a story about the death of the decaying world he lived in. Taken allegorically, the story is compelling. It didn’t occur to me as I was reading to take the story literally. I assumed the controversy the book generated at the time of its publication was just that: taking an allegory literally. Now I’m not so sure.

Soumission

Reviews