Platform

Rating:
Summary: Houellebecq should write essays, not novels.
Review: 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.

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Summary: "The Stranger" in Thailand
Review: This book appeared on a list of Esquire magazine's best books for 2003, and when I read the description, I knew I had to read it.

At first it appeared I would be disappointed. The first quarter to half of the book will seem a bit alien to anyone who is not familiar with French culture, especially pop culture. There are references to cultural personalities that the average non-French reader simply will not recognize. It also seems to echo common French literary themes--alienation, sexless love, loveless sex.

However, Houellebecq's characters, namely the protagonist's lover, Valerie, and the protagonist himself over the course of the book, make numerous simple but insightful comments about the human condition in modern (especially Western) society that leave the reader pondering them far after closing the cover.

As an American who is a long-time resident of Asia, with knowledge of some of the activities in which the book's characters engage, it is clear that Houellebecq did his research, and his conclusions resonated with me and those of others in a similar position. Platform is certainly worth a read, but more importantly, proper consideration about its form and message.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but over the top sometimes
Review: This book definitely improves as you read it. The author rants on a number of subjects and in some cases feels like he is going off just to show off. Still, he has a unique perspective and as the book progresses what he had to say was more relevant to the subject matter and more interesting in general. If you don't mind tons of sex then there is a lot worth reading here. If you are fed up with the way our society treats sex and relationships then this book is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely wacky. I couldn't put it down.
Review: This was one of most enjoyable books I have ever read, I plowed through it in just over a day last week; I simply couldn't put it down. Sitting on a flight reading Platform, I kept laughing out loud and interrupting my girlfriend, obliging her to read passages which were so good I just had to share them with someone. I'm not going to pretend to be able to shed too much light on the story's deeper meanings - if there are any - I would just say that Platform is a shocking and thoroughly entertaining look at the world through the eyes of a complete cynic and utter dead beat. Kind of like the movie Train Spotting, only without much of the feel-good factor. You probably won't enjoy this book if you are very sensitive or are easily prone to believing the worst about people and the world - if these are character traits of yours, this book will just depress you; better to leave it alone. Same thing if you're not comfortable with graphic sexual content. I will definitely be reading Mr. H's other books.

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Summary: Provoking....
Review: Those of you who are interested in European discourse will remember the crusade on author of this book two years ago, which culminated in whole dossier published in Finkelkraut's European Messenger in which leading pens of Euro culture raised their voices trying to intelectually subdue this book and statements presented in it.
Inraged cries of every religious community out there, from islam to christianity ensured the succes to this book.
We are witnesses of methods of mass media so one should always look with scepticism too all kind of fusses that are raised towards todays literature. But this book really deserved it. And that, believe it or not is a good thing to literature.
Ever since the begining of time, writer was supposed to shock community, from Boccacio's Decameron to Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Sluggishnes of thought and slowness of mind that dominated Europe are finaly broken with this book.
Every concept out there is driven trough, you may almost call it Occham's razor, deconstructig society in general, not willing to admit any kind of supremacy to culture or historicism author tries to present the new world which even in today's democracy (whatever that means) stands out as twisted and pervert....At least to majority of people.
Read this book... It is a begginig of a new epoch....

Rating:
Summary: Powerful & courageous,
Review: With "Platform", Michel Houellebecq has disproved the adage that you can't follow up a groundbreaking debut with something even better. If truth be told, I thought "Atomised" was original but wildly overpraised, but when I finished "Platform", it felt like a train had run through me. I was floored by its power, vision and courage. Unlike many books which peter out after a promising start, "Platform" gets better with each page and ends on a shattering climax and a devastating afternote.

Like "Atomised", the author speaks directly to us through the voice of the novel's protagonist (also named Michel), so you'd be forgiven for simply assuming that it's Michel Houellebecq himself who is telling the story. This perspective is reinforced by the author's unique trademark of making political and social commentary an integral part of the novel's plot. So when critics lambast Michel (the character) for being racist, anti-Islamic and all the rest of it, it's hard to escape levelling these same charges against the author.

But while it's tempting though surely missing the point to dismiss much of "Platform" as a diatribe against the lurid excesses of third world sex tourism, the madness of terrorism, etc, it isn't difficult to locate the tongue-in-cheek yet bitter irony in Houellebecq's view of the 21st century world. The pimps and whores of the third world regard the sex trade as a means of survival, and that's alright because everybody has a right to live, their customers - mostly pathetic human specimens in need of getting themselves a life like the early Michel and his failed bureaucrat friends - are driven to such levels of depravity and despair by their own society which makes gratification of their primal sex urge such a complicated and unattainable affair. So the graphic sex scenes featuring Michel, his bisexual girlfriend Valerie and many anonymous others in twosomes or threesomes are funny, absurd, sexy, yet strangely touching. Houellebecq has elevated sex to hyperbole in "Platform" to suggest that Western society may have dug its own grave on the subject of sex from playing too many mind games. Hence the need to "Look East" to rediscover their lost but false paradise.

Houellebecq's narrative voice can be distancing and alienating, especially when he's being cryptic during his periodic lapses into commentary, so the really big surprise is that by the end of the story, he has transformed Michel into a real human being and against our better judgement, we begin to feel for him and even find ourselves hurting badly over his loss.

"Platform", Houellebecq's sophomore effort is not only vastly superior to "Atomised", it is a truly great novel. I am tempted to call it a masterpiece. There aren't too many novels this powerful, daring and courageous. Don't miss it !