The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 03 Jan 2007, 20:19

Has anyone read The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq? Have you read any of Houellebecq's work? How did you like it?

I haven't actually read it yet, and I don't know if I will. The author of the review above didn't seem to think it was that great of a book.

LoveHatesYou · Post by **LoveHatesYou** » 04 Jan 2007, 12:14

I haven't, but after reading the review, I think I may have to. If it's half as bad as the author of the review states- it might be worth it just to learn what not to do. I'm only allowed to go to the book store once a month (personal rule- it breaks the bank account) so it'll be awhile. I'm curious what others may think... If you subtract the adjectives, you have the facts- in which case, it kind of sounds interesting... I'll give it a shot.

zeeshan · Post by **zeeshan** » 07 Jan 2007, 04:48

I read Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles last week which I quite liked. Like many other writers he's been on my list for a couple of years but it took me time to get to him. IEP is by no means a literary masterpiece or a challenging novel. If Chuck Palahniuk was a little more highbrow and had a variety of intellectual curiosities then he would probably be Houellebecq. Which isn't to say Houellebecq is in anyway a "highbrow" writer but compared to Palahniuk he might as well be. There's an slow-boil apocalyptic cynicism to his work and commentary on the decline of western civ running concurrent through the narrative. I'm not interested in Whatever or the possibility of an island but I am going to read Platform very soon. I have no problem with his obsession with sex but I get the feeling that despite blindingly accurate representations of modern sex culture and pornographic obsessions, he has very little to say about it that an average adolescent can't think on their own. I think it's his prose that really works and despite several shortcomings that I could talk about in Elementary Particles, I think Houellebecq with some variation and learning curve might be able to an excellent novelist. Whether that will happen remains to be seen.

The review or overview is somewhat unfair and is almost getting the point but not quite. Houellebecq's moralising is not as problematic as he makes it sound nor does it really require much investigation or interrogation.