Thursday
Nov112010
On Michel Houellebecq
Issandr El AmraniI have a review of Michael Houellebecq's latest book, La Carte et le Territoire, which just won the 2010 Goncourt, out in The National. I discovered Houellebecq late in life, and consider him one of the best living French writers. This is an appreciation, although it's tinged with a note of disappointment that he didn't win the Goncourt for his 2005 novel The Possibility of an Island, which I think is his best work.
I don't particularly care about Houellebecq's private life or his provocative opinions, including his rather thoughtless comments on Islam, which is pretty much the only tenuous connection I can find to the usual fare on this blog.
Reader Comments (2)
Issandr Can you read french? Because in french, the style of Houellebecq is really really poor.And as already said Louis Ferdinand Celine, a writer's is Style first . He made a good first book - l'extension du domaine de la lutte - good not great, a one hit wonder. But after that, it's mediocrity at his best .Houellebecq is the successful combination of marketing advertising and the spirit of the day, the zeitgeist. A spirit deeply cynical, reactionary and frankly mediocre. The big reason for his success is that he handed this mirror of mediocrity to the sociéty which recognized in it. Not only his novels are second-rate, but a man who can said or write that muslim womean in veil are only" bitch in heat" and that a palestinian baby killed is one terrorist missing, a man like that is mediocre, humanly speaking.
If you can read french and if you want french litterature at his best, see Richard Millet, Jean Rolin, Michel Schneider or Jean-Benoît Puech, to take few.
By advance excuse me for my very bad english....
Dear Ibn Tolstoi,
Yes I am a native French speaker and read all of Houellebecq in French. I like his style a lot, I think it's "épuré" and ludid and among the best I've read in contemporary literature. Much better, in my opinion, than for instance François Weyergans's "Trois Jours Chez Ma Mere" which beat him for the Goncourt in 2005.
People are extremely split on Houellebecq, and I'm on the side of those who think he's a great writer (Bernard Pivot and others agree, after all). So we'll have to differ on this one. As for his views on Muslims, they're stupid, but do not detract from his literature. One can listen to Charles Trenet without liking Petain, etc. Thanks for the comment.