Stacked

It can be hard to separate an author from his well documented persona (cantankerous and controversial) and it’s even more difficult when he includes himself as a character in his own novel. While he appears in The Map and the Territory Houellebecq is certainly not playing any gimmicky games. Here he manages to engage the reader with his usual biting commentary on humanity and the world we live in; a skewering of the art world, his continued exploration of the highs and lows and strains and strands of relationships, both romantic, familial and professional and all with merely a smattering of misogyny and barely a sex scene to show for it. Art and artists (and writers too) are not perfect, but they can show us the depths of reality with their work. And Houellebecq, as misanthropic as he is, can do that and even create some hard feelings and quality entertainment along the way. I found the book delightful.

I know, right? 

This is one of those books where you’re all like, oh, okay, this is kind of a slow start, but the writing is tight and clean and there are some real perceptive moments and this french-author-probably autobiographically-based-protagonist has no name and there’s some funny/serious stuff with this other french totally Michel Houellebecq doppelganger character who hates Islam and wants to bone prostitutes and they’re in Cairo and it’s all very literary but also a bit seedy, but also a a bit ‘traditional’  and sexist but then you get to the end and are so thankful that you read it even though you were worried about how all that Middle East-Europe/France-Islam stuff would play out but it all paid off and the whole thing is kind of exactly what you needed, but weren’t expecting at all.