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Amazon.co.uk Review
Houellebecq obviously has a formidable intellect and, like the best French writers, manages to rail against anthropology, psychoanalysis, New Age philosophy and modern society in general without losing sight of his narrative--indeed the narrative is controlled quite beautifully, the pacing excellent, the switching from one brother's story to the other's done with a quiet grace. While some of Houellebecq's views are at the least questionable, and while there are moments when the conclusions to be drawn from his broadsides are disturbing, this never negates the value of the work. This is an ambitious book in which Houellebecq asks important questions: if sex is continually degraded by its increasing commodification and, concomitantly, genetics increasingly offers us the opportunity for procreation without recourse to it, where does that leave us? How do we navigate ourselves, afloat as we are, in this new moral universe? What does the increasing pace of scientific change mean to the conversations non-scientists have about our lives? What place does something called spirituality, whatever that means, have in this brave, new world? This is a big, bold, clever book that has already achieved more than cult status in France. Houellebecq should be read, and read carefully, if not always believed. --Mark Thwaite
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Standing at the crossroads of art and science.,
By
This review is from: Atomised (Paperback)
Someone once said that trying to introduce ideas into a novel is tantamount to letting a gun off in a theatre – in which case Houellebecq here revels in firing a shotgun during a premiere performance. His is a fresh and fascinating take on modern living, supposing that society today is half defined by our awareness of the consequences of popular science and half by our awareness of the consequences of pornography. His characters are educated and intelligent but their lives are filled with frustrated lusts and insights into an essential emptiness of the world around them. There is a deliciously honest political incorrectness about Houellebecq’s views and a fierce sense of his desire to shake-up the accepted norms. In France, where intellectual arguments can still make headlines in the popular media, the book caused a storm of protest and debate. The contention is that just because we know a lot of things about a lot of things, just because we think that we understand the dynamics of society in a way that no previous generation has, just because we feel that we have an appreciation of the value-systems that structure our lives; none of this has moved us on any distance from being prejudiced and boorish and base. Houellebecq argues that society has fractured into individuals and that this lets us see ourselves for what we really are – for all that we may have learned to walk upright and use tools, we are still just naked apes. This book is quite simply unmissable.
38 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not pleasant but essential. Extraordinary.,
By
This review is from: Atomised (Paperback)
I started reading this book almost a year ago and got through the first 2/3 very quickly; then something strange happened: I was so depressed by the contents of it, the constant pointless sex, the graphic descriptions, the callousness and emptiness of the characters and the emptiness of their shallow lives that--despite knowing that all this was deliberate by Houllebecq, that it was his razor-sharp deconstruction and commentary on the modern Western lifestyle--I was just not able to continue, until two days ago, when, with nothing else to do, I picked it up off my bookshelf and started from where I'd left off. The hiatus worked wonders and I whizzed through the remainder of the book, enthralled and riveted, although at times disgusted too, and full of admiration.This is a difficult book but a necessary one and, I have no hesitation in now saying, a brilliant one. The book is full of some extraordinary ideas and incisive commentary on humanity in the late 20th century, especially that of European society. The ending--it goes into (very plausible) hard science fiction territory--the erudition of the writer, his eye for detail, and his twin obsessions of sex and violence, and his ability to be brave enough to write what he sees without any thought for political correctness or any of the other sops of the liberal left, is breathtaking and--despite the ocassional Islamophobia, nay contempt he portrays for organised religion but Islam in particular, his racism, makes this book essential reading especially after the tragic events of 9/11 and those in London on 7/7 and after. This book has more important and accurate things to say about the human condition of contemporary European man than any number of the dry academic essays on sociology and anthroplogy you can care to read. Understand Houllebecq and you understand what people nowadays really care about and think. I don't think I'd like the man but to ignore him and what he is saying would be to do so at our own peril. I haven't read a book full of such big and radical ideas for a long time.
21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fatuous, Derivative, Massively Overrated,
This review is from: Atomised (Paperback)
On the evidence of 'Atomised', at least, there is nothing profound or original to Michel Houellebecq that a British reader cannot read in a column in the Daily Mail. Sex is a commodity, human beings are emotionless automatons (or going that way); we seek instant gratification. Life is pretty crap for most of us unless we manage through some fluke to get laid. It's a depressing - and dishonest - picture. And although, to be fair, given with some literary panache and at least a dash of humour, Atomised is just another salvo in a reactionary war against humanity itself. Houellebecq blithely brushes over centuries of of human achievements to give us two horrific characters who we are asked to believe somehow 'represent' humanity. Michel is a scientist who could never even kiss his girlfriend and wonders about in a scientific haze. Bruno drops his trousers whenever he sees a girl - the sticky results follow soon after. Maybe the author should leave the island he lives on and find some human contact elsewhere. He offers a laughable indictment of humanity which he has no right to give. For a real insight into the malaise of European postwar civilisation I suggest you pick up the infinitely more erudite and, indeed, humane, W.G. Sebald. ("Austerlitz", "The Emigrants")
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