Review: The unnamed narrator of Houellebecq's novel is Marcuse's one-dimensional man. A single, 30-year-old computer engineer in Paris with no sex life, he suffers from a chronic passivity that, in Houellebecq's view, is characteristic of Generation X. He buys, but doesn't take joy in any of the things he possesses. He has acquaintances, but no friends. In his off hours he writes dialogues featuring an assortment of barnyard animals. When his company sends him and a colleague, Bernard, out to Rouen and La Roche-sur-Yon to consult on software, nothing much gets done. In Rouen he suffers from heart problems. Since Bernard visits him in the hospital, a bond develops between them. Bernard, cursed with a repulsive appearance and a horny disposition, makes obnoxious advances to every woman he sees and is predictably rejected. Sexual deprivation is the atmosphere in which these men exist. That both men see women only in terms of their sexual features makes their impotence even more pathetic. After breaking up with his last girlfriend two years ago, the narrator has withdrawn from the romantic arena. And yet he has developed an intricate and mean-spirited, if ill-defined, theory of sexual hierarchy. The loose narrative condenses to an action sequence when the narrator tries to get Bernard to murder a woman with a steak knife, but the incident is gratuitous. In the end, Houellebecq displays none of the novelist's eye for detail and, further, defaults on the development of a vital main character, who might have connected this series of threadbare incidents into an interesting social comment.
Opinion: It´s kind of hard to find a way to start describing this book because many people think the book is very controversial and I must admit that it is in some aspects. But if you look at it from a diferent point of view this book only talks about this man that has serious problems like... with his ex-girlfriend and middle age problems, but most importantly it seems to me that he doesn´t find any sense to his life anymore. It´s an interesting read because of his political views and human struggles presented in this age that he kinds... of makes fun of. haha Because this is his first novel I can´t help to find some autobiographical events of the author of this book. He probably wrote this stuff when he was depressed after breaking up with a woman. For the sake of readers that might find it depressing I´ll lower the rating a bit...
Personal Rating: 6/10
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