thndrstd 's review for:

Submission by Michel Houellebecq

4.0

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In the near future, the French government is taken over by Muslims. Meanwhile, Francois, a middle-aged college lecturer about the 19th century Decadent author J.K. Huysmans, is bored. Changes in French culture swirl around him and he is soon caught up in them. This is less of a book about a major hypothetical political/religious change as it is about middle-aged masculinity and the search for meaning in contemporary life (because I'm a middle-aged man myself, I found it more engaging than some likely will). Smart and thought-provoking, the novel is more interested in Francois' psychology and philosophical probings than in plot.