Book review: Michel Houllebecq's Soumission - blame modern man, not Islam
As the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo murders continues to unfold, French readers are turning to a recent cover star of the magazine, with Michel Houellebecq's Soumission racing to the top of bestseller lists at Amazon.fr. But is France's most celebrated controversialist offering a splenetic vision of the Muslim threat to Europe or a spineless "submission" to gradual Islamic takeover?
by Michel Houellebecq
Flammarion
As the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo murders continues to unfold, French readers are turning to a recent cover star of the magazine, with Michel Houellebecq's Soumission racing to the top of bestseller lists at Amazon.fr. But is France's most celebrated controversialist offering a splenetic vision of the Muslim threat to Europe or a spineless "submission" to gradual Islamic takeover?
Actually, neither. It's much more interesting than that.
Those riffling impatiently through the opening for controversy will be disappointed, as we are introduced slowly to the narrator, François, a middle-aged literary academic who teaches at the Sorbonne. He is an expert on J.K. Huysmans, the cultish 19th-century anatomist of decadence, and he sleeps hungrily with his students. But François is bored. The narration is enjoyably sardonic, a pungent mixture of deadpan jokes about sexual politics and close reading.
The novel - due to be published in English later this year - is set seven years in the future, in 2022. François settles in to enjoy the TV spectacle of the presidential elections, which he considers second only to the World Cup for entertainment value. After the first round of voting, the two candidates left are Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National, and the head of France's new Islamic party, Mohammed Ben Abbes. The Socialists do a deal with the Muslim Fraternity to defeat Le Pen, and Ben Abbes becomes president.