Whatever
Michel Houellebecq
Read January 2008
Copy borrowed from Ramsey County Public Library, White Bear Lake branch
Essay written March 30th, 2008
Considering what a great book this was, it was a shame that it had such an awful cover. In fact, it had the kind of obnoxious cover that ordinarily would make me not even pick it up and give it a fair chance. But the last name of the author piqued my interest (fortunately, on the shelf at the library, I got to see the spine and therefore the author's name before I saw the cover), and the fact that this was a translation from a French novel captured my attention enough to make me read the blurb and give it a whirl.
I had been reading Mambo Kings Play Songs Of Love by Oscar Hijuelos before Christmas. I was about halfway through with that one by the 21st of December, my last day of work before a week and a half vacation. But at home I had no interest whatsoever in the Mambo Kings. I gave up reading it entirely. It's kind of rare for me to get 200 pages into something before deciding to scrap it, but that's what happened. Then for that whole week and a half I didn't read anything at all, except maybe for a few pages of Life, A User's Manual here and there. I had picked up Whatever at the White Bear Lake library probably on the same time I picked up Mambo Kings, and was in the H section. That was the same day I checked out Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.
What did I like about Whatever? I guess the main character was just so likeable. Despite everything. Perhaps I didn't get the main thesis of the novel, but that's okay. This was wonderful modern French alt-lit, and I would like to find more dark weird stuff in this vein. It was kind of like Vertigo by W.G. Sebald, but without taking itself so seriously.
A nice short microtour of one facet of modern France without being as ridiculous as How I Became Stupid.
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