Annihilation

by Michel Houellebecq

Picador Annihilation ABISBOOK Picador.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

About the author

Michel Houellebecq (born Michel Thomas), born 26 February 1958 (birth certificate) or 1956 on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French novelist. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire; to detractors he is a peddler, who writes vulgar sleazy literature to shock. His works though, particularly Atomised, have received high praise from the French literary intelligentsia, with generally positive international critical response, Having written poetry and a biography of the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, he brought out his first novel Extension du domaine de la lutte in 1994. Les particules élémentaires followed in 1998 and Plateforme, in 2001. After a disastrous publicity tour for this book, which led to his being taken to court for inciting racial hatred, he went to Ireland to write. He currently resides in France, where he has been described as "France’s biggest literary export and, some say, greatest living writer". In 2010 he published La Carte et le Territoire (published the same year in English as The Map and the Territory) which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt; and, in 2015, Submission.

Reviews

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

Annihilation is, if one had to sum it up in a (by now stale) meme: not great, not terrible. It’s ostensibly a combination between a spy thriller and a more character driven novel, which mixes in the political, metaphysical and occasionally spiritual. This is not really the case as the spy thriller parts are a thin veneer over the rest, and they are also the weakest part of the book. The author is clearly not comfortable with either genre trappings or modern technology, with lapses that range from unintended humor (in how a video is actually successfully fully deleted from the internet, with no explanation) to frightful cliché (it takes the best minds at the spy agency to figure out how locations of terror strikes form a *shock, gasp* pentagram).
Houellebecq is much better when describing relationships on both interpersonal and societal levels, making attemps at meaning and finding love in a nihilistic universe. That part of the novel is actually rather good, but let down by a bad translation that includes multiple grammatical and spelling errors. It might be better in the original French.

[Phil Swash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not what I expected but overall I did enjoy it. It is about the lives of people connected to Paul, the main character. The internet terrorist events are just a political backdrop to Paul’s career. The author weaves in erudite opinions and reflections on modern life, how we treat the aged and what life is all really about.

[Nick Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected, even after reading a quarter of it. It made me think, and I enjoyed the references to France and French life. Too long, and it dragged a little, but overall interesting and different.

[Gavin Fryer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preferred to serotonin. Thought it was far more human. Ending dragged, but perhaps thematic. Aurelian was my favorite.

[Ethan Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started it for the political/social commentary and thriller -like nature, but it quickly dragged me, reluctantly, into a family drama that constantly felt like a soap opera more than anything else.

The only time I felt invested or engaged was when Paul was at work, and they were trying to solve these mystery cyber/terrorist attacks, all the stuff around the election and their investigations into the big questions on humanist political theories. (Side note- were these attacks solved in the end? Forgive me if they were but I must've zoned out at that bit) and yet that takes up about a quarter of the novel.

I did not care for his relationship with his wife 'with a great ass' - yeah we get it mate she has a great ass, religious sister, miserable cuckold younger brother Aurelian or the fact that THE MAIN CHARACTER GOT SUCKED OFF BY HIS (BLOOD RELATIVE) NIECE AND HARDLY EVEN BATTED AN EYE.

Usually this MAY all be interesting if it was written differently, or if that was what I wanted out of a book, but Houellebecq's narrative felt stale, told through the eyes of Paul. He's such a boring, blank slate of a bloke that even when he gets his cancer diagnosis, I just wanted it to be sorted so the political stuff could continue. Then I realised I had ABOUT TEN PAGES LEFT AND THEN HE BASICALLY DIES.

Now, I realise, that Aurelian is not the cuckold, I am. Thank you Monsieur Houellebecq, you time waster.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was immediately hooked by the internet terrorist plot at the beginning; but as the book progressed, my expectations kept getting completely thrown off. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, there were just a few moments where it took turns I really didn't see coming.

Ultimately, it felt like a powerful reflection on relationships, family, existence, and mortality. It made me cry like a baby at the end :'(

I loved how human and imperfect the whole book felt. I was pretty disappointed by the ending, but at the same time, it felt oddly apropos for the book's overall message that life can be absurd and random and sometimes disappointing, yet still meaningful even if only in the smallest moments

[Magdalena Wilk-Ramasamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq took me by surprise. I began it expecting a tightly woven political novel, centred on power, influence, and the inner life of a man close to the summit of French politics. Houellebecq builds that world carefully, only for the novel to move in a very different direction. What emerges instead is something more intimate, more unsettling, and ultimately more affecting.
While I have not lived the life of Houellebecq’s protagonist, I recognised the emotional landscape with uncomfortable clarity: the sense of being unmoored, the need to keep functioning when the future feels uncertain, and the strain that difficult circumstances place on both judgment and relationships. Houellebecq captures that disorientation with remarkable precision - the way you’re asked to decide things when every option feels like a compromise, the constant calculation of what one can endure, and at what price, and how quickly the world narrows to what matters most. And always, the awareness that these decisions are never yours alone, that they ripple through the lives of those closest to you.
It is not the novel I expected, but it has unsettled me in ways I recognise all too well.

[Russell King · Rating 2 out of 5]

This translation from the French offered so much- a modern political thriller blended with complex family relationships - but ended delivering little satisfaction and no suspense. It trudged its way through detail and back story never reaching a climax. The translation felt very clunky and overwritten and I feel sure it must have read far better in the original version given some of the accolades it received. 2 stars purely for some of the interesting insights into French politics and culture.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest after reading 70% of this book I was thinking to myself, what is the point of the whole political story…. So unlike Michels other books. I trudged on and I would say that it was worth it. He touched on a topic at the end that I am going through with a family member and it was pretty raw. Good work Michel , you have earnt yourself a good rest!

[Oliver M · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Houellebecq is clearly a skilled writer and storyteller, his book "Annihilation" leaves a sour aftertaste. He offers a very precise analysis of the state of France in particular and the West in general. Yet from the contradictions and cruelties of late capitalism, he draws conclusions that are, on the one hand, tedious and, on the other, racist, misogynistic, and reactionary.

[Arnoldas Puodenas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A much more tender Houellebecq not just being disgusted by the absurdity of a purely materialistic reality, but looking for something more in the metaphysical. The group drifts away and all that remains is the small world of the family, one which is ruled by the tenderness of women. He seems almost ready to take a step into Catholicism, but still remains unwilling.

[Eddie Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 stars

Slow, confused, rambling, overly long. Too many back stories. Where is/was it going? What does it want to be? Perhaps the essence of it has been lost in translation. Some very good dream sequences. Similar in themes and excessive length to Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one writes the abject malaise of daily living quite like Houellebecq. He drags your soul over a football field’s length of unfinished plywood but it’s a journey you return to again and again. Profound. Banal. The absurdity of a single, compartmentalized life within our absurd and compartmentalized society is masterfully captured. I am now thoroughly depressed. Merci.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satisfyingly bleak and dark. Houellebecq manages to capture the Zeitgeist with unerring precision and wrings the last drop of meaning from it. A wonderful novel.

[Nandan Joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

M H is in his usual form (along with his customary wicked humor) and shines a light on the political situation in France, relationships and mortality

[Carly Cantlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

So long

[Tristan Tongue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the translation was really bad. Overly long sentences which were very difficult to follow. Good characters but not sure about the continuity of the plot.

[Heidi Gu · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Not my type of theme. Probably would enjoy it if I’m reading it in my late 30s or 40s.

[Sarah Barcomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title is apt as this novel will annihilate you

[John Lees · Rating 4 out of 5]

mayyyybe 5... Will need to think about it.

[Hana Dasic · Rating 4 out of 5]

His writing is genious. Funny, bleak, rich, restrained, simple. So many great thoughts, comments, passages. The only trouble I have is the whole terrorist story that hasn’t resolved.

[Mary Peterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m good on Houellebecq now, don’t have to dip my toe back in

[Abdullah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the book and it wasn’t stimulating enough. I couldn’t connect with the characters.