Word: houellebecq
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...middle-aged, balding and his angst is monumental. But novelist Michel Houellebecq just might become your newest hero. Although Americans are just beginning the struggle to pronounce his phonetics-defying name ("Wellbeck"), the French have been engaged for the last two years in an intense debate over the significance of his scandalously right-wing and pornographic weltenshaung. But if you haven't heard of Houellebecq, never fear; in the course of the next year, you will probably be unable to avoid him. To many French, he has already been christened the new Camus, a potential leading figure for a whole...
...well, however, to be somewhat wary of this bloated hype. For all the talk of the scandal, indignation and adoration that this world-weary little man has produced, there has been a curious lack of commentary upon the quality of his prose and his philosophy. This is indeed to Houellebecq's advantage, as his novel gives the avant-gardes a bad name. Beneath its glossy veneer of scandal, The Elementary Particles is an amazingly shallow and silly read. Filled with poorly realized characters, indifferent writing and ludicrous leaps of logic, the novel will not leave you pondering the inescapability...