Atomised - Michael Houellebecq (1998)

Detail of the Bohr atom from the glorious Chart of Electromagnetic Radiations: 1944 W.M Welch Scientific Company Poster edited by Athrur Compton, no less. https://ehtrust.org/chart-electromagnetic-radiations1944-w-m-welch-scientific-company-poster/

The Book

Atomised generated a lot of column inches, but maybe just a couple will give you all you need to know

• HERE is a review from the New York Times in 2000. For all it’s success, the book was not short of detractors.

• HERE is the reaction of the author’s mother.

• Houellebecq’s prose suffers from a familiar problem…

• Atomised came out in 1998. A couple of years later, France heard about the hedonistic lifestyle from another source HERE and HERE.

If you really want to do this to yourself, here is the complete film version of Atomised, by Oskar Roehler.

The Author

• HERE is a link to an excellent Le Monde article summarising the current state of play with Houellebecq.

There’s this as well, if you still fancy it…

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