Loved itthe story of a French civil servant contending not only with his father's mortality but also it turns out his own viciously real novel it's a meditation on mortality and a grim critique of Western attitudes towards the elderly
Review 1 of 2
Annihilation (2024)
Others: Positive A stunning political thriller from the author of Serotonin and Submission about faith and family, love and mortality, social upheaval and political controversy.In Michel Houellebecq's Annihilation, it is 2027 and France is in a state of economic decline and moral decay. Unemployment, rural poverty, and income inequality have reached unprecedented levels. As the country plunges into a closely fought presidential campaign, the French state falls victim to a series of mysterious and unsettling cyberattacks. A video posted on the internet depicts the guillotining of Finance Minister Bruno Juge.As an adviser to Minister Juge, Paul Raison is close to the heart of government. His wife, Prudence, is a Treasury official, while his father, Édouard, now retired, has spent his career working for the French counterterrorism agency. Paul’s personal life is as troubled and as atomized as that of the his marriage has become strained, while his ties with his siblings are distant. But when Édouard suffers a stroke, Paul has an opportunity to repair his relationship with them, as they determine to free their father from the medical center where he is wasting away.
- ISBN:
- 9781035026418
- Length:
- 544 pages
Genres: literary fiction
Lists: …
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Perfection
Vincenzo Latronico
2024 · 136 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveMillennial expat couple Anna and Tom are living the dream in Berlin, in a bright, plant-filled apartment in Neukölln. They are young digital creatives, freelancers without too many constraints. They have a passion for food, progressive politics, sexual experimentation and Berlin's twenty-four-hour party scene. Their ideal existence is also that of an entire generation, lived out on Instagram, but outside the images they create for themselves, dissatisfaction and ennui burgeon. Their work as graphic designers becomes repetitive. Friends move back home, have children, grow up. An attempt at political activism during the refugee crisis proves fruitless. And in that picture-perfect life Anna and Tom feel increasingly trapped, yearning for an authenticity and a sense of purpose that seem perennially just out of their grasp. With the stylistic mastery of Georges Perec and nihilism of Michel Houellebecq, Perfection, translated by Sophie Hughes, is a sociological novel about the emptiness of contemporary existence, beautifully written, brilliantly scathing.
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Also literary fiction81%Better Than Food loved both14%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations5%My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Ottessa Moshfegh
2018 · 304 pages · 10 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveIt's early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side, and the alienation of Moshfegh's unnamed young protagonist from others is nearly complete when she initiates her yearlong siesta, during which time she experiences limited personal interactions. Her parents have died; her relationships with her bulimic best friend Reva, an ex-boyfriend, and her drug-pushing psychiatrist are unwholesome. As her pill-popping intensifies, so does her isolation and determination to leave behind the world's travails. She is also beset by dangerous blackouts induced by a powerful medication.
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Also literary fiction84%Better Than Food loved both14%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations2%Naked Lunch
William S. Burroughs
1959 · 255 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveControversial and bizarre cult novel based on the author’s own experiences as a drug addict, first published in 1959. Formed as a series of inter-connected adventures set in locations as diverse as the U.S. Mexico and Morocco sees the protagonist, Burroughs’ alter-ego William Lee on the run from the police and always searching for his next fix. Burroughs once stated that the chapters can be read in any order.
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Also literary fiction85%Better Than Food loved both14%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations1%The happy marriage
Tahar Ben Jelloun
2016 · 305 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Positive""Ben Jelloun is arguably Morocco's greatest living author, whose impressive body of work combines intellect and imagination in magical fusion."--The Guardian In The Happy Marriage, the internationally acclaimed Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun tells the story of one couple--first from the husband's point of view, then from the wife's--just as legal reforms are about to change women's rights forever. The husband, a painter in Casablanca, has been paralyzed by a stroke at the very height of his career and becomes convinced that his marriage is the sole reason for his decline. Walled up within his illness and desperate to break free of a deeply destructive relationship, he finds escape in writing a secret book about his hellish marriage. When his wife finds it, she responds point by point with her own version of the facts, offering her own striking and incisive reinterpretation of their story. Who is right and who is wrong? A thorny issue in a society where marriage remains a sacrosanct institution, but where there's also a growing awareness of women's rights. And in their absorbing struggle, both sides of this modern marriage find out they may not be so enlightened after all"--
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Also literary fiction86%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations14%One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
2022 · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveNow a Netflix series adaptation starring Claudio Cataño, Jerónimo Barón, and Marco González One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America. Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.
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Also literary fiction87%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations13%A Leopard-Skin Hat
Anne Serre
2008 · 137 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveA quintessential early novel about an intense friendship, by the winner of the 2020 Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle. A Leopard-Skin Hat may be the French writer Anne Serre’s most moving novel yet. Hailed in Le Point as a “masterpiece of simplicity, emotion and elegance,” it is the story of an intense friendship between “the Narrator” and his close childhood friend, Fanny, who suffers from profound psychological disorders. A series of short scenes paints the portrait of a strong-willed and tormented young woman battling many demons, and of the narrator’s loving and anguished attachment to her. Anne Serre poignantly depicts the bewildering back and forth between hope and despair involved in such a relationship, while playfully calling into question the very form of the novel. Written in the aftermath of the death of the author’s little sister, A Leopard-Skin Hat is both the celebration of a tragically foreshortened life and a valedictory farewell, written in Anne Serre’s signature style.
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