A review by pentalith5
The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq

3.0

I came at this book expecting it to be in the genre of sciencey, philosophical, post modern brain-candy fiction. This was all based on the cover, and the fact that I knew the author had also written a book entitled "The Elementary Particles". I should know not to form expectations based on such things, but I did anyway. And it was a good effort on Houellebecq's part too. I am not, not, not a hard-core science-fiction fan, but I was amused, intrigued. Especially at the last chapter, which I won't talk about here. Anyway, this is not a science fiction book at all. Nor is it a dystopia novel. It is fiction. The reason it only gets three stars is that it really seems like the author believes what he is writing is an astute observation of the reality of most human experience. I wasn't buying it, not any of it. And I know there was some artistic point to all of this, some deeper meaning behind his going on and on and on-and-on-and-on about how all social interaction is meaningless without a physical component, OK! I get the point, and it just ain't so.