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Submission by Michel Houellebecq
bookshelves: hardback, paper-read, translation, muslim, published-2015, politics, flippancy, france, cult-yah, lit-richer-jan-2016, lit-richer, books-about-books-and-book-shops, eye-scorcher, sleazy, skoolzy-stuff, utopian, dystopian, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, satire, winter-20152016, amusing, tbr-busting-2016, midlife-crisis, absurdist, bettie-s-law-of-excitement-lost, bigamy, casting-couch, decline-disintergration-degradation, doo-lally, feckless-procrastination, first-world-angst, medieval-mentality, misanthropic, misogyny, newtome-author, oo-la-la, religion, roman-catholic, whats-it-all-about-alfie, wrong-so-wrong
Read from January 07, 2015 to January 20, 2016
Description: In a near-future France, François, a middle-aged academic, is watching his life slowly dwindle to nothing. His sex drive is diminished, his parents are dead, and his lifelong obsession – the ideas and works of the nineteenth-century novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans – has led him nowhere. In a late-capitalist society where consumerism has become the new religion, François is spiritually barren, but seeking to fill the vacuum of his existence.
And he is not alone. As the 2022 Presidential election approaches, two candidates emerge as favourites: Marine Le Pen of the Front National, and Muhammed Ben Abbes of the nascent Muslim Fraternity. Forming a controversial alliance with the mainstream parties, Ben Abbes sweeps to power, and overnight the country is transformed. Islamic law comes into force: women are veiled, polygamy is encouraged and, for François, life is set on a new course.
Submission is both a devastating satire and a profound meditation on isolation, faith and love. It is a startling new work by one of the most provocative and prescient novelists of today:
On the dartboard, before I have even read a page, is Rasputin and Le Pong, with faces turned into the board, natch: Russia 'bought' Marine Le Pen's support over Crimea: France's far-Right Front National accused of taking millions of pounds in loans from Russian bank as "reward" for backing Vladimir Putin on Crimea
Opening: Through all the years of my sad youth Huysmans remained a companion, a faithful friend; never once did I doubt him, never once was I tempted to drop him or take up another subjrct; then, one afternoon in June 2007, after waiting and putting it off as long as I could, even slightly longer than was allowed, I defended my dissertation, 'Joris-Karl Huysmans: Out of the Tunnel', before the jury of the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne.
I didn't plan on reading this just now, yet I couldn't put it down...
LATER: Although this did have a hook 'Submission' left me underwhelmed as Houllebecq's reputation (this is the first of his I'd encountered) promised me the baad boy of fiction. All he is is mysogynist, the sex was boy's playground snigger material, and the premise of this tale was singularly feckless and ultimately unbelievable. A word of praise for his sly humour though, I did chuckle along with the asides. Baseline 3* is all I can muster.
The penis would pass from one mouth to the other, tongues crossing paths like restless flocks of swallows in the sombre skies above Seine-et-Marne when they prepared to leave Europe for their winter migration."
Any images of urban violence mean more votes for the National Front. So for now the far right is stirring things up even more."
When a government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people, and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of rights and the most dispensable of duties."
Dithyrambic: A frenzied, impassioned choric hymn and dance of ancient Greece in honor of Dionysus; an impassioned oration
dyshidrosis : Dyshidrotic eczema, or dyshidrosis, is a skin condition in which blisters develop on the soles of your feet and/or the palms of your hands
Nick Drake Excellent! Page 31
Boris Cyrulnik
And he is not alone. As the 2022 Presidential election approaches, two candidates emerge as favourites: Marine Le Pen of the Front National, and Muhammed Ben Abbes of the nascent Muslim Fraternity. Forming a controversial alliance with the mainstream parties, Ben Abbes sweeps to power, and overnight the country is transformed. Islamic law comes into force: women are veiled, polygamy is encouraged and, for François, life is set on a new course.
Submission is both a devastating satire and a profound meditation on isolation, faith and love. It is a startling new work by one of the most provocative and prescient novelists of today:
“It is the mark of an educated mind
to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it.”
― Aristotle, Metaphysics
On the dartboard, before I have even read a page, is Rasputin and Le Pong, with faces turned into the board, natch: Russia 'bought' Marine Le Pen's support over Crimea: France's far-Right Front National accused of taking millions of pounds in loans from Russian bank as "reward" for backing Vladimir Putin on Crimea Opening: Through all the years of my sad youth Huysmans remained a companion, a faithful friend; never once did I doubt him, never once was I tempted to drop him or take up another subjrct; then, one afternoon in June 2007, after waiting and putting it off as long as I could, even slightly longer than was allowed, I defended my dissertation, 'Joris-Karl Huysmans: Out of the Tunnel', before the jury of the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne.
I didn't plan on reading this just now, yet I couldn't put it down...LATER: Although this did have a hook 'Submission' left me underwhelmed as Houllebecq's reputation (this is the first of his I'd encountered) promised me the baad boy of fiction. All he is is mysogynist, the sex was boy's playground snigger material, and the premise of this tale was singularly feckless and ultimately unbelievable. A word of praise for his sly humour though, I did chuckle along with the asides. Baseline 3* is all I can muster.
The penis would pass from one mouth to the other, tongues crossing paths like restless flocks of swallows in the sombre skies above Seine-et-Marne when they prepared to leave Europe for their winter migration." Any images of urban violence mean more votes for the National Front. So for now the far right is stirring things up even more."When a government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people, and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of rights and the most dispensable of duties."Dithyrambic: A frenzied, impassioned choric hymn and dance of ancient Greece in honor of Dionysus; an impassioned oration
dyshidrosis : Dyshidrotic eczema, or dyshidrosis, is a skin condition in which blisters develop on the soles of your feet and/or the palms of your hands
Nick Drake Excellent! Page 31
Boris Cyrulnik
6