TotallyHuman
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Elementary Particles is a famous (infamous for some) novel by the controversial French writer Michelle Houellebecq that I read about a week ago.
This isn't going to be an in-depth review for the novel, and I will just leave the way I feel about what I read.
I decided to leave a review for it here for no real reason other than me being bored and wanting to do something and coming up with it, so, here it goes, I guess?
It's a very well-written novel that takes place in a period of time from around 1950s to early 2000's + a small section going over to 2020's which at the moment of writing of this novel were future years.
All throughout the novel, the mood of the story is deliciously and generously misanthropic, but having a deeply engaging style of narrative that drags you in for more, despite you knowing that you should not expect things to get better. You also have a feeling that things won't get worse, but I'll get to that soon. It also has some very questionable thoughts and ideas about certain groups.
I am sure that an innatentive reader (and I doubt there are many such types for this book) will think Houellebecq is some middle-aged sexually frustrated misogynist racist that poured his overflowing incel energy into words, which may just be true to an extent, but I doubt it. This novel, at its core, is a piece of great misanthropic writing. The author, along with the narrator don't hate certain groups, they feel distaste towards everyone, probably equally. There is not a single even remotely admirable character that I could find. Each and every one of them is pathetic in their own right.
Now, I will come back to the part where I said that you don't really expect things to get worse. The story doesn't care about its characters, or whatever it is telling, is what you feel. It may feel some vague distaste, and a general sense of disgust, but overall it is indifferent to it all, it spews out its contents mechanically, and with a surgical precision. Things aren't going to get better, or worse, because they just will happen and they won't matter at all.
I definitely recommend that you read it.
This isn't going to be an in-depth review for the novel, and I will just leave the way I feel about what I read.
I decided to leave a review for it here for no real reason other than me being bored and wanting to do something and coming up with it, so, here it goes, I guess?
It's a very well-written novel that takes place in a period of time from around 1950s to early 2000's + a small section going over to 2020's which at the moment of writing of this novel were future years.
All throughout the novel, the mood of the story is deliciously and generously misanthropic, but having a deeply engaging style of narrative that drags you in for more, despite you knowing that you should not expect things to get better. You also have a feeling that things won't get worse, but I'll get to that soon. It also has some very questionable thoughts and ideas about certain groups.
I am sure that an innatentive reader (and I doubt there are many such types for this book) will think Houellebecq is some middle-aged sexually frustrated misogynist racist that poured his overflowing incel energy into words, which may just be true to an extent, but I doubt it. This novel, at its core, is a piece of great misanthropic writing. The author, along with the narrator don't hate certain groups, they feel distaste towards everyone, probably equally. There is not a single even remotely admirable character that I could find. Each and every one of them is pathetic in their own right.
Now, I will come back to the part where I said that you don't really expect things to get worse. The story doesn't care about its characters, or whatever it is telling, is what you feel. It may feel some vague distaste, and a general sense of disgust, but overall it is indifferent to it all, it spews out its contents mechanically, and with a surgical precision. Things aren't going to get better, or worse, because they just will happen and they won't matter at all.
I definitely recommend that you read it.
