Platform [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover)

by MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ (Author) "Father died last year..." (more)
Key Phrases: behavioral sociologist, hostess bars, sex tourism, Nouvelles Frontières, Club Med, Guide du Routard (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
The controversial French author of The Elementary Particles (2000) turns in another unremittingly bleak novel. In addition to amplifying his views on the decadence of Western civilization, Houellebecq displays an absolutely chilling prescience in his depiction of a violent Muslim sect. Misanthropic, sexually frustrated bureaucrat Michel embarks on a "Thai Tropic" package tour, amusing himself with snide commentary on his fellow vacationers and frequent visits to sex clubs. Although he is attracted to business executive Valerie, he has trouble engaging her in small talk. However, when they return to Paris, their relationship quickly turns passionate as they explore sadomasochism and public sex. Michel talks Valerie and her business partner into marketing sex tours to the Third World, selling them on his theory that Westerners have lost touch with their own sexuality. But when they decide to sample one of their own tours, their resort becomes a flashpoint for Islamic hatred. Houellebecq is unrelenting as he meticulously constructs a world that mirrors his own cold vision and that cuts uncomfortably close to the bone. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
'Reading Houellebecq is like being caught up in a tropical storm: you are blown away by the ferocity of his imagination' Observer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 Amer ed edition (July 15, 2003)
• ISBN-10: 0375414622
• ASIN: B0006I7FCC
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #136,368 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book crummy translation...as usual, September 16, 2005

By	inframan (the lower depths) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Platform (Paperback)

The big problem with reading Houellebecq's books in English is the abysmal translations which totally undercut the unique angry funny insightful voice of this writer. The results on the page comes off as tinny, stilted & pretentious. I can only compare it to Lawence Welk doing a cover of a John Coltrane composition. Yes note for note or word for word does not convey meaning or harmony or rhythm or sense.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the Wild and Erotic World of Michel and Valérie!, July 25, 2003

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Platform (Hardcover)

A small conceit of the English translation of Michel Houellebecq's PLATFORM is that certain words and phrases the author originally used in English are boldfaced, presumably so that readers will know that they carried a sort of extra Anglo-Saxon punch in the original text. However, the boldfaced words also recall the talent of Frank Wynne, Houellebecq's translator. I mention these words because I otherwise might not have remembered that I was reading a translated text, so clearly and accurately has Wynne rendered the author's unmistakable, inimitable voice.

With that said, this is not a voice all readers will appreciate. Protagonist and first-person narrator Michel Renault lives a small, sour existence as a middle-aged, middle-management civil servant. His Paris contains no romance and less contentment, and so he travels --- but his coldly assessing eye hardly allows him to enjoy his journeys or his arrivals. Sex in a variety of forms preoccupies him, and it is through sexual experiences that he seems to at least feel alive. While the women on his tour mainly disgust him (the young and nubile he deems "sluts"; the older and more aware he derides in various ways), women whom he can pay for sex receive the small bits of appreciation he can muster.

Still, it is a fellow tour group member, Valérie, with whom Michel connects when back in Paris. Michel, whose barely restrained anger towards his recently dead father once prevented him from pairing off with anyone besides his own hand, finds Valérie's combination of submissive generosity and high-paying job as a tourism executive irresistible. Their relationship brings him so much contentment that his boss comments that he seems happy. Despite their calm domestic bliss, the pair (both of whom seem quite addicted to orgasm) soon finds themselves drawn to more and more extreme erotic adventures.

Most of the time, PLATFORM seems more like one for Houellebecq's extreme yet articulate views than it does a novel --- yet his frozen-eyed comments on capitalism, religion, and gender politics are uncomfortably close to the secret thoughts so many people have. When Michel and Valérie devise a plan to turn her company's tours into sex holidays, they return together to the Thailand where he once experienced the zipless pleasures of a remarkably sanitary sex worker...For a moment, it seems that everyone will be happy, even Valérie's dour boss, Jean-Yves (given his straitlaced viewpoint, Houellebecq seems to say that it's no wonder his wife moonlights as a dominatrix). But alas, an early discussion Michel has with his father's housekeeper-mistress, whose Muslim honor avenged resulted in Renault pére's murder, presages the tragic end of the resort community and Michel's brief personal paradise. That this paradise is based on Western woman's supposed boredom with the all-too-familiar sex-for-love equation and the purported eagerness of Eastern woman to trade sex for the simple things (groceries, reliability, good manners) makes Houellebecq's Utopia terribly disturbing --- and terribly thought-provoking.

--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Houellebecq should write essays, not novels., January 18, 2005

By	Mr. Eddie (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Platform (Hardcover)

There are enough droll, incisive, hilarious observations about the sickening ironies of corporate culture and the pursuit of happiness in this book to make for a wickedly funny essay. However, the plot of the book is quite simply so unengaging, its premise so preposterous, and the characters so unidimensional, that reading it became a daily slog.
I still do not have in my mind's eye a picture of just who Valerie is, nor do I care about Jaques-Yves (or whatever his name is) for a moment. Perhaps Michel is attempting to portray the equilibrium (or lack thereof) of sexuality in the first world, but his method is tedious, uninvolving, and incredibly unconvincing.
Yet, any book with passages such as: "Happiness is a delicate thing," he announced in a sententious voice. "'It is difficult to find within ourselves, and impossible to find elsewhere.' If you reversed the words 'difficult' and 'impossible' you'd probably have been closer to the truth."
...has some wisdom in it.