BOOKISH: Jews and Booze, black ballerinas and ain't no Houellebecq Girl. (Sorry)

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BOOKISH: Jews and Booze, black ballerinas and ain't no Houellebecq Girl. (Sorry)

POSTED: Thursday, February 23, 2012, 5:00 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass | Events Books

Sun., Feb. 26

Happy Birthday, Houellebecq!

Michel Houellebecq: loved, hated, but never ignored. For his admirers, Houellebecq is a modern Marquis de Sade, the contemporary heir to a tradition of literary provocation that seeks to bend the rules of the novel in content and form. For others, Houellebecq is a sleazebag whose tasteless ramblings on sex and drugs promote misogyny and general trash. Wherever you may stand on the issue, he still deserves a birthday shout-out and some praise for stirring things up in the literary world. If you're new to Houellebecq, I suggest The Possibility of an Island. The dystopian epic has several narrators: Daniel — an aging womanizer who seems to be modeled after the author — and Daniel's clones, who live in a far-distant future among fellow “neohumans.” In a strange collision between human psychology and the possibilities of modern technology, Houellebecq forces readers to consider what it means to be human. Look for a copy at your local library branch.

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