Ebook Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne
Your perception of this book Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne will certainly lead you to acquire exactly what you precisely need. As one of the motivating books, this book will supply the existence of this leaded Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne to collect. Even it is juts soft documents; it can be your collective file in device and also various other device. The essential is that usage this soft file publication Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne to review and also take the advantages. It is just what we suggest as publication Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne will certainly boost your thoughts and mind. After that, reviewing book will certainly also enhance your life top quality better by taking great action in well balanced.
Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne
Ebook Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne
Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne How a simple idea by reading can improve you to be an effective individual? Reading Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne is a really basic activity. Yet, how can lots of people be so careless to review? They will certainly like to spend their leisure time to chatting or hanging around. When in fact, reviewing Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne will certainly give you a lot more probabilities to be effective finished with the efforts.
Reading Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne is a very beneficial passion and also doing that could be undertaken whenever. It implies that reviewing a book will not limit your activity, will not compel the moment to spend over, as well as will not spend much money. It is a quite inexpensive as well as reachable point to purchase Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne But, with that said quite low-cost point, you could obtain something new, Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne something that you never ever do and also get in your life.
A brand-new encounter could be acquired by checking out a publication Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne Even that is this Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne or other publication collections. We provide this book due to the fact that you could discover much more points to encourage your ability as well as knowledge that will certainly make you much better in your life. It will certainly be also valuable for the people around you. We recommend this soft documents of guide below. To know the best ways to obtain this book Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne, read more here.
You could discover the link that we provide in website to download and install Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne By acquiring the economical price and also get completed downloading, you have finished to the first stage to obtain this Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne It will be nothing when having purchased this book and also not do anything. Read it and expose it! Invest your few time to simply review some sheets of web page of this book Platform, By Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne to check out. It is soft file as well as very easy to check out anywhere you are. Enjoy your brand-new routine.
Michel Renault is a human void. Following the death of the father he barely knew, he endures his civil ser-
vice job while eking out an existence of prepackaged pleasure, hollow friendships, TV dinners, and pornography. On a group holiday in Thailand, however, he meets the shyly compelling Valérie, who soon pursues an agenda that Michel himself could never have thought possible: his own humanization.
Back in Paris, they plunge into an affair that strays into S&M, public sex, and partner swapping, even as they devise a scheme to save Valérie’s ailing travel company by capitalizing on the only trade Michel has seen flourish in the Third World. Before long, he quits his job, and their business model for “sex tourism” is gradually implemented. But when they return to Thailand, where Michel’s philosophy will be put into practice, he discovers that sex is neither the most consuming nor dangerous of passions . . .
From a suburbanized West crippled by hate crime to an East subsumed by materialism, Michel Houellebecq explores—with characteristic provocativeness, but also with surprising tenderness—the emotions that seem most resilient to any influence: love and hate. Platform is, as Anita Brookner has written, “a brilliant novel, casting a prescient eye on the abuses and inequalities that lead to wider trouble.”
- Sales Rank: #171350 in Books
- Published on: 2003-07-15
- Released on: 2003-07-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.54" h x 1.16" w x 6.51" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 272 pages
From Booklist
The controversial French author of The Elementary Particles (2000) turns in another unremittingly bleak novel. In addition to amplifying his views on the decadence of Western civilization, Houellebecq displays an absolutely chilling prescience in his depiction of a violent Muslim sect. Misanthropic, sexually frustrated bureaucrat Michel embarks on a "Thai Tropic" package tour, amusing himself with snide commentary on his fellow vacationers and frequent visits to sex clubs. Although he is attracted to business executive Valerie, he has trouble engaging her in small talk. However, when they return to Paris, their relationship quickly turns passionate as they explore sadomasochism and public sex. Michel talks Valerie and her business partner into marketing sex tours to the Third World, selling them on his theory that Westerners have lost touch with their own sexuality. But when they decide to sample one of their own tours, their resort becomes a flashpoint for Islamic hatred. Houellebecq is unrelenting as he meticulously constructs a world that mirrors his own cold vision and that cuts uncomfortably close to the bone. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Howard Stern meets Albert Camus in this novel of sex and alienation . . . Houellebecq has sharp observations about ennui in the Western world and rage in the Muslim one.”
–Kyle Smith, People
“Astute, graceful, sexually preoccupied . . . Houellebecq rewards with glimpses through his particularly keen lens.”
–Arthur Hirsch, The Baltimore Sun
“A novel at once brilliant, charming, puzzling, annoying and sometimes downright repulsive . . . The work of a highly talented writer.”
–Jean Charbonneau, Cleveland Plain Dealer
“The talented, cynical Houellebecq blasts Western culture and Islam in his odd, subversive entertainment.”
–Carlo Wolff, The Boston Globe
“Blunt, arrogant, coolly detached, ultra-sophisticated, impeccably and simply presented, intellectually self-assured and very self-conscious . . . This is the real thing, the kind of novel that ends up in the canon.”
–Michel Basilières, The Toronto Star
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Bang for your buck
By JS
The author seems deeply and truly interested in sex and tourism. These go hand in hand as travel always seems to make humans more excitable.
He seems to have experienced many of the encounters he describes. Good for him! Though mainly written in the first person, at times the prose transitions into the second person which is somewhat disorienting. I would recommend this book which is pornographic, but not for porno's sake alone.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting but over the top sometimes
By Zeattle
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.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
An examination of cynicism and desire
By I. Baker
"Anything can happen in life, especially nothing."
This sums up Michel's Houllebecq's novel quite well. Michel, the narrator, says people think of him as aa "harmless human being, moderately amusing." "They were right," he says. "That was about it." He avoids other people because "It is in our relations with other people that we gain a sense of ourselves; it's that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable."
He is one cynical guy. He maintains that individuality is a sham: "When all's said and done, the idea of the uniqueness of the individual is nothing more than pompous absurdity." But I don't think he really believes that. There's something else underneath, some hope that life could be better under certain circumstances.
He meets a young woman named Valerie on a trip to Thailand, where about two-thirds of the story takes place. He is blown away by Valerie's innate desire to give others pleasure. It's something he's never found in a person before. Their sex is frequent and intense and detailed intricately in Houllebecq's prose. Some is his best writing is when he is describing sex, or the desire to have sex, or the feeling after having sex. He's not quite obsessed with sex, but I would say he gives it more worth and value than most people in 21st Century America do. (Sometimes we need a Frenchman to remind us that sex is good!) Sex, he says "is the only game left to adults." That said, if you're easily offended by sexual acts, this book is not for you. Many people would consider large portions of this book to be nothing more than pornography. I disagree, because I think there's more going on here, but it's true that Houllebecq loves writing steamy stuff.
However, there's a dark tone underlying all this love and sex, because the narrator tells us early on that he is now alone and regrets never being able "to know a wife's body." So we know something goes wrong with Valerie, we just don't know what it is.
In the second half, the book switches from a story of sexual self-discovery and blossoming love to a story of how two people (Michel and Valerie) fit into the global economic system. I don't want to read too much into his writing, but I know Houllebecq too be crafty, always sneaking in meaning and larger philosophical issues. And the global political themes are very easy to spot. Valerie is involved in setting up hotels in third-word countries, and she and Michel begin to foray into sex tourism, making women available at these hotels for rich people to sleep with. They view it as a capitalist Meanwhile, they're having sex like crazy, experimenting, and at times it seems a bit too much for Michel. It becomes clear that their entrepreneurial sex endeavor will run up against some powerful forces. And it becomes clear that this clash of civilizations is the dark event the narrator foreshadowed.
Michel struggles to hold onto his rejuvenated life, which is always vulnerable to his original cynicism. In the latter throes of the book, it becomes clear that the narrator Michel is just as cynical as he ever was. A broken man is telling us this story. "We are probably wrong to assume that each individual has some secret passion, some mystery, some weakness." No matter what kind of pleasure he experiences, Michel still retains his cynical belief that the idea of "the individual" is a lie. By allowing ourselves to be overcome with passion, we also make ourselves vulnerable to pain. The higher the joy, the more potential it has to hurt when it comes tumbling down. And this is exactly what happens to the narrator.
One of the most moving and gorgeous passages in the book has nothing to do with Michel, but with a dying old man. He realizes at the end of his life that the only good thing he did in life was raise a few rabbits in a small hutch. His career, his wife, it was all a pointless pursuit. But this admission isn't totally nihilistic. Those rabbits had some sort of meaning and power in his life. Of course, in typical Houllebecq fashion, when the man dies, his wife wants to kill all the rabbits to be rid of them.
Most of the novel is written in first-person, but then Houllebecq switches to third person omniscient. So, essentially, the reader gets insight into the other characters, pictures of their most vivid memories and most intense desires, but we're still in the language, the head of the narrator, Michel. Normally, I think this kind of blending of points of view can be gimmicky, but somehow Houllebecq makes it work.
"It's curious to think of all the human beings who live out their whole lives without feeling the need to make the slightest comment, the slightest objection, the slightest remark." But when Valerie is gone, this is exactly what Michel does. For him, Valerie was the one exception, the one passionate outlet. Once she's gone, he realizes he no longer wants to make any comments or objections. He doesn't love and he doesn't hate. He simply accepts his fate and the end of his life in a sober manner. In the end he knows he will be forgotten, and quickly. It's a bleak assessment of his life, but it's also a realistic assessment. As he himself admits, the protagonist was a "mediocre individual in every sense."
The book, however, was in no way mediocre. This is a fantastic effort that explores the nature of love and desire, the ugly heart of materialism and the agony of loss.
Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne PDF
Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne EPub
Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne Doc
Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne iBooks
Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne rtf
Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne Mobipocket
Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, Frank Wynne Kindle
No comments:
Post a Comment