Atomised

Another author that I’m reading backwards is Michel Houellebecq. His breakthrough novel was Atomised, almost an architypal tube book. His most recently translated/published paperback was Platform which I read last year. I see that Lanzarote is published this summer, keeping up the cover theme of having a scantily clad model on the cover.
I’m not too sure about Houllebecq – his work is eminently readable, but sometimes the authorial voice sounds ever-so unreconstructed. Now that might be the characters, but on a reading of two of his books, he seems to do those attitudes awfully well.
He’s certainly an elegant writer, who’s supremely translated in a chatty style. The ideas are intelligent – there’s no doubt that he’s French. Philosophical ideas are important to him.
Atomised tells the story of two half-brothers who were brought up separately, neither of them in great surroundings, and with sexual identity problems. Mixed into this is lots of sex and some interesting mathematical and genetic ideas.
To be honest my mind was drifting off towards the end of the book – although the process of reading the book was somewhat enlivened by my “losing” the book, having to purchase another copy, and subsequently finding my “lost” copy. Still Waterstones were kind enough to let me exchange it for something else.


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