The book that haunted me most this year, Michel Houellebecq’s “Submission,” didn’t disturb me because of its premise — the election of France’s first Muslim president. What got under my skin was how quickly and subtly change swamps the detached, aimless protagonist, and how viciously the novel points out the smugness and solipsism of the…
● Soumission By Michel Houellebecq French and European Publications Inc, 320 pages, $49.95 Though it pretends to be about France’s near future, Michel Houellebecq’s controversial “Soumission” is also about its recent past. Set in the year 2022, the novel portrays a country riven by conflicting ideologies and worldviews, teetering on the edge of civil war….
“Public Enemies,” far from being the “duel” suggested by the book’s subtitle, is in fact an act of mutual masturbation by two of France’s leading luminaries, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Michel Houellebecq (pronounced Wellbeck). In the book-length series of letters, the friends encourage each other to indulge in self-reflection. They talk about their fathers. They spar…
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