Monday, March 26, 2018

Michel Houellebecq, The Possibility of an Island ** 1/2

I've intended to read a Houellebecq novel for quite some time but couldn't decide which one to choose. Evelyn solved the problem for me by giving me The Possibility of an Island for Christmas.

The Possibility of an Island alternates between narrators: a caustic comedian from (roughly) the present day and two of his clones from two millennium hence. The current Daniel is present at the inception of a new religion that promises eternal life through cloning; the future Daniels show how immortality has worked out.

I can sum up the main theme of the book in one sentence: The primary driver of human life is sex and related instinctual drives, while the aspects of our personalities that we want to retain are the more rational ones. That's an interesting idea but I wasn't impressed by Houellebecq's presentation of it. Too much sex and self-pity, not enough insight. (Just after typing this paragraph, I found a similar verdict at the review-summary site Complete Review: "interesting scenario and ideas, fairly ponderous and crude presentation.") Furthermore, the narrative doesn't start to get interesting until nearly halfway through.

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