The Possibility of an Island (Vintage International) [Paperback]

Michel Houellebecq (Author), Gavin Bowd (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: May 8, 2007 | Series: Vintage International

A worldwide phenomenon and the most important French novelist since Camus, Michel Houellebecq now delivers his magnum opus–a tale of our present circumstances told from the future, when humanity as we know it has vanished.

Surprisingly poignant, philosophically compelling, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, The Possibility of an Island is at once an indictment, an elegy, and a celebration of everything we have and are at risk of losing. It is a masterpiece from one of the world’s most innovative writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like the New Age camp of The Elementary Particles and the Thai sex tourist hotels of Platform, Houellebecq's latest novel has a self-enclosed setting: the shifting sites at which the Elohimites, a UFO/cloning cult, hold their seminars. Daniel, a shock jock famous for such slogans as "We prefer the Palestinian orgy sluts," narrates what turns out to be his life story. Early on, Daniel's partner, Isabel, leaves him after her breasts begin to droop and she gains some pounds. Then Daniel, following a catastrophic love affair with nubile Spaniard Esther, gets interested in the Elohim, gets close to the "prophet" and witnesses an event that catapults the group into the center of world history. Daniel's part in this converges with his jealousy of Esther. Meanwhile, the West is going to hell in a handbasket, and the Elohim idea of substituting cloning and suicide for reproduction and old age is catching on. Everything ends frighteningly (unless you like clones) and satisfactorily (if you take a cynical enough view). Houellebecq has never written better, yet this novel seems stuck in the groove—clunky mini-essays, gonzo porn digressions—first etched by his earlier novels. 50,000 announced first printing. (May 26)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Gloom suffuses the works of celebrated French novelist Houellebecq (Platform, 2003). His latest offering features 40-year-old Daniel, a caustic comedian and filmmaker whose celebrity status earns him access to Elohim, a cult of sexually promiscuous health fanatics who achieve immortality through cloning. The narrative alternates between the original Daniel (plagued by a succession of failed love affairs, with affection remaining only for his Welsh corgi) and his subsequent "neohuman" incarnations, virtually devoid of humanity and emotion. Moments of contentment are rare for Houellebecq, who seems to revel in a sort of vulgar navel gazing, replete with horrifying images (one particularly distressing scenario depicts explosions of infant skulls). Joyless Daniel even despises laughter, "that sudden and violent distortion of the features that deforms the human face and strips it instantly of all dignity." Frequently labeled by critics as a malcontent and misogynist, Houellebecq seems to revere canines, with their capacity for devotion and unconditional love. It's a strange bit of sentimentality from a man who seems, by all accounts, heartless. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (May 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307275213
• ISBN-13: 978-0307275219
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Grim and very embittered, but still utterly brilliant. July 9, 2006

By Bruno

Format:Hardcover

This is undoubtedly Houellebecq's most ambitous work to date. The themes of his previous novels, such as the fragmentation of modern society, the masochistic cult of youthful sexuality in an aging society, and the possibility of happiness in a world in which values have been stripped to those of hedonistic individualism at the same time that the satisfaction of those desires has never been harder to obtain, are again explored, but here in a quite novel setting, and to a more thorough conclusion.

The novel is composed of two parallel narratives, both concerning the character of Daniel, a politically incorrect comedian who has made a carreer out of exploiting the cruelty and prejudices of the masses. The first narrative is of the life of the original human Daniel, the second concerns that of his cloned successors. The two narratives have a kind of symmetry. Whereas the human Daniel gradually loses his faith in humanity, the power of love, and his ability to obtain any kind of love, sexual or otherwise, the cloned versions of Daniel gradually emerge from a completely isolated, pain free environment, to awaken to the desire and possibility of human social and sexual contact.

The isolated world of Daniel's cloned existance seems to portray Houellebecq's vision of the logical conclusion to developments in contemporary society. Each clone lives in a secluded bubble of existance, designed to shield him from the pain and suffering that has been declared to be an inherent component of human biological life. Contact with others is made purely by e-mail, whilst outside in the real world, human society has degenerated into the level of animal savagery. The world of the cloned neo-humans is run by the 'Supreme Sister', in other words feminists have fully succeeded in their present agenda of castrating men and divorcing reproduction entirely from sex. In fact, the whole story of the cult from which the neo-humans and Daniel's immortal successors emerge could be read as an allegory of the development of human civilisation out of a primitive society dependent on basic biological needs (something which Houellebecq seems to see as being a state our present society has regressed to), to its transition to a patriarchal society based on moral aspirations, and then to one were the seemingly innate simian sexual rivalry of men is ultimately exploited by women to castrate them and take control of sexual reproduction.

For Houellebecq, human life is a sexual battle. Darwinism should be better described as 'survival of the sexiest', rather than 'survival of the fittest'. He has the honesty and the politically incorrect aptitude to recognise that all our social mores, all our moral codes, ultimately spring from the eternal Darwinian sexual battle to leave as many descendents as possible behind us.

'Contrary to recieved ideas,

Words don't create a world;

Man speaks like a dog barks

To express his anger, or his fear'

Feminism, the latest moral religion to sweep the western world, is no more than another attempt to control sexual reproduction in the interests of one particular social group. The only interesting thing about this particular morality is that this time, it has been invented for the benefit of the reproductive organs of women, or at least certain kinds of women.

Through the possibility of cloning, Houellebecq explores the hope of a human existance that has escaped from this brutal Darwinian war. Can there exist the possibility of an island, where men and women can live in happiness untouched by the brutal biological realities that turn every facet of human life into a savage battle for reproductive survival, fought by nature's cruel weapons of desire and frustration? The grim answer from Houelebecq is a resounding Schopenhaurian negative. We can never escape from our biological, animal existance and find either unconditional love or satisfaction without boredom.

Although obviously stylistically more ambitious than previous works, the writing doesn't seem quite as fluent as before, something which can presumably be accredited to the translation of Gavin Bowd (Frank Wynn haing translated 'Atomised' and 'Platform'). Also, despite having the main character as a comedian, it does seem to lack in humour compared to previous novels. Nevertheless, a briliant book. It might be that Houellebecq sticks to familar themes, but when those themes are the degradation and collapse of modern society, the hypocricy and lies that we base our contemporary society upon, and the very essence of human existance and its possibility of change, then lets hope Houellebecq continues his one man wrecking spree on the politically correct delusions of our age.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Canticle for Don Quixote February 23, 2008

By Davis-Vautrin

Format:Paperback

A profoundly sad and lyrical book, perhaps the author's masterpiece, in which the Spanish countryside of the mad knight, now modern, disillusioned, and no longer blind, is intertwined with the Spanish countryside of a future millennium that is bleak and all too plausible. If Walter Miller's apocalyptic classic touched us with its ironic depiction of a post-nuclear devastation planet that cycles and recycles its history, Houellebecq shows us the inevitably destructive trajectory of man from within, what has replaced the paradise that was long ago lost, and the animal nature of humans that centuries of culture have camouflaged but cannot eliminate. This book will linger in the reader's memory for a long, long time. Very few contemporary authors have captured the essence of our loneliness as precisely as this one.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reflection on what it means to be human and the role of aging July 18, 2006

By Gilberto

Format:Hardcover

This was my first Houellebecq novel, and I absolutely loved it. In fact, this is one of my all time favorites.

The book addresses issues that are currently relevant in the Western world (and the book is set mostly in France and Spain), and the book often directly refers to things that were recently in the news and refers to current technology.

The book reflects on what it means to be human by comparing humans (mortals with all sorts of desires) with neo-humans

(immortals, with very few desires). Houellebeck addresses the

processes of aging, love and sex, and how these are related. In that sense, the book is very philosophical. And yet, it was also extremely well written and very readable. I loved the story line and the plot, and I had a very hard time putting it down. Finally, I also liked the humor in the book.

I 'd like to compare Houellebecq with Vonnegut, in that both authors are very philosophical, both authors use science fiction as a tool to have a different perspective on current conditions (rather than imagining what the future might look like), and both have a great sense of humor.