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A review by annalouise
Whatever by Michel Houellebecq, Paul Hammond
3.5
May not have loved the book, but the last line, 'It will not take place, the sublime fusion; the goal of life is missed. It is two in the afternoon', was enough to bump it from a middling 3 star to 3.5. I think the first two parts were rather weak, but the development of the narrator's psyche in the last part makes up for the drag of the beginning.
The novel is more of a voyeurism of the tech work environment than a commentary on it, although the commentary comes from that voyeurism. The equation of financial culture with sexual is an interesting and accurate one, insofar as you view sex in a capitalist society as a commodity. Tisserand's particular plight is interesting in that regard, and the narrator attempts to act out his own fantasies - he is passive yet opinionated, he silently hates everything around him, but never makes an attempt himself to change it - to get revenge on his ex-lover through a stand-in (Tisserand for him and the girl for Véronique). Echoes the quiet misogyny of many novels of its time and before, it is simply not interesting any longer.
The animal dialogue segments reinforce the overall tone of the narrator's thoughts, and particularly his penchant for projecting his own desires onto others, here acting them out in his fictions. I did, however, think they were thrown in as an attempt at originality which came across bizarre and useless. They don't add much to the story at all that isn't already - or couldn't be - explored through the existing content of the novel.
The novel is more of a voyeurism of the tech work environment than a commentary on it, although the commentary comes from that voyeurism. The equation of financial culture with sexual is an interesting and accurate one, insofar as you view sex in a capitalist society as a commodity. Tisserand's particular plight is interesting in that regard, and the narrator attempts to act out his own fantasies - he is passive yet opinionated, he silently hates everything around him, but never makes an attempt himself to change it - to get revenge on his ex-lover through a stand-in (Tisserand for him and the girl for Véronique). Echoes the quiet misogyny of many novels of its time and before, it is simply not interesting any longer.
The animal dialogue segments reinforce the overall tone of the narrator's thoughts, and particularly his penchant for projecting his own desires onto others, here acting them out in his fictions. I did, however, think they were thrown in as an attempt at originality which came across bizarre and useless. They don't add much to the story at all that isn't already - or couldn't be - explored through the existing content of the novel.