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Whatever

Front Cover
86 Reviews
Serpent's Tail Limited, 2011 - Fiction - 155 pages

"Houellebecq captures precisely the cynical disillusionment of disaffected youth."?Booklist

"This boy needs serious therapy. He may be beyond help."?The Washington Post

Just thirty, with a well-paid job, depression and no love life, the narrator and anti-hero par excellence of this grim, funny, and clever novel smokes four packs of cigarettes a day and writes weird animal stories in his spare time.

A painfully realistic portrayal of the vanishing freedom of a world governed by science and by the empty rituals of daily life.

Michel Houellebecq is a multi-award-winning French author. He currently lives in Spain.

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5 stars
13
4 stars
27
3 stars
17
2 stars
16
1 star
6

The story (and the writing) is just boring. - Goodreads
Intelligent writing. - Goodreads
Writer doesn't believe in being succinct. - Goodreads
Houellebecq is a great writer. - Goodreads
Favourite passage: “Writing brings scant relief. - Goodreads

Review: Whatever

User Review  - Derek Baldwin - Goodreads

Extremely funny, but serious too with the mental disintegration of the narrator handled very skilfully. not a wasted word anywhere, and free of the cultural references which tend to pepper his later ... Read full review

Review: Whatever

User Review  - Clark - Goodreads

"Let's put a chimpanzee in a tiny cage fronted by concrete bars. The Animal would go berserk, throw itself against the walls, rip out its hair, inflict cruel bites on itself, and in 73% of cases will ... Read full review

All 86 reviews »

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About the author (2011)

Novelist and poet Michel Houellebecq was born in 1958, on the French island of Reunion. At the age of six, Michel was given over to the care of his paternal grandmother, a communist, whose family name he later adopted. His literary career began when, at twenty, he started to move in poetic circles in France. Whatever, Houellebecq's first novel, has been translated into several languages. Houellebecq's second collection of poems, Le sens du combat (The Meaning of the Fight), obtained the Prix Flore in 1996. In 1998, he received the prestigious Grand Prix National des Lettres Jeunes Talents for his literary work. He has also won the Prix Novembre (for The Elementary Particles ). His first album, Presence humaine, was released in 2000. He currently lives in Ireland.

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