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The Possibility of an Island

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 3,613 ratings · 278 reviews

A worldwide phenomenon and the most important French novelist since Camus, Michel Houellebecq now delivers his magnum opus–a tale of our present circumstances told from the future, when humanity as we know it has vanished.

Surprisingly poignant, philosophically compelling, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, The Possibility of an Island is at once an indictment, an elegy...more

Paperback, 337 pages

Published May 8th 2007 by Vintage (first published 2005)

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Dec 07, 2008 RandomAnthony rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't know. This is one of those books that really seemed to be multiple books. Here are three of them:

1. This book is partly the product of a guy who read too much Celine and wants to talk about girls' asses. There's a nihilistic streak in which the narrator asserts that nothing matters but fucking, and getting old is the worst thing that could happen ever, and anybody who says anything against that are just fooling themselves. FOOLING THEMSELVES. While a few of the rantings are funny/insight...more

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Jun 22, 2007 Jason Pettus rated it 5 of 5 stars

(Full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

So before anything else, let's just get this out of the way: that if you aren't horrendously and profoundly offended at least once by the work of controversial French author Michel Houellebecq, you're not paying close enough attention. Because Houellebecq, see, is what's known as a misanthrope; that far from being a racist, or a sexist, or a homophobe, he simply hates the entirety of humanity, every...more (Full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

So before anything else, let's just get this out of the way: that if you aren't horrendously and profoundly offended at least once by the work of controversial French author Michel Houellebecq, you're not paying close enough attention. Because Houellebecq, see, is what's known as a misanthrope; that far from being a racist, or a sexist, or a homophobe, he simply hates the entirety of humanity, every last one of us air-breathing meatsacks, and goes to great pains in his celebrated and award-winning novels to detail all the various ways that you too should hate humanity as well. And that of course is what marks him as different than the typical life-hating streetcorner obscenity screamer, is that Houellebecq has some incredibly astute observations about life to back these opinions up; that he has an almost magical ability, in fact, to take the detritus from those "news of the weird" departments, and to somehow combine them all into one of the bleakest yet fairest descriptions of humanity you will ever come across. His truths are difficult truths, and they're often insulting truths, and they are truths that very meticulously pick apart the veneer by which most everyday people live their lives; and it's for all these reasons that so many people have such a violent reaction to Houellebecq's work, and why there are as many haters of his fiction as there are champions of it.

Like...say, the Muslims, a group of which weren't very happy at all with what Houellebecq had to say about them in his 2001 sex-tourism farce Platform; so unhappy, in fact, that this group took Houellebecq to court for "attempting to incite racial violence," which like libel is easier to prove in European courts than American ones. And Houellebecq reacted to this lawsuit (which he was eventually cleared of) in the exact way you would expect Houellebecq to react to such a lawsuit; as if the entire thing was beneath him, and simply further proof of the point he makes in his books in the first place, of what a bunch of mouth-breathing jackasses humanity in general is. And let's face it, in a world of full-frontal nudity in movies and high-school massacres on television, it's almost impossible anymore for a mere novelist to arouse this kind of passion and ire in the general public; and thus it was that Houellebecq became a literary sensation in Europe (which was pretty much ignored by the media in the US, what a surprise), and suddenly found himself rich and famous and with several of his projects suddenly being adapted into major movies.

But a troubling question lingers after all this, of course: that when you write the most outrageous novel of the century, the one that simultaneously made you a media star and almost killed you, what do you do for an encore? In Houellebecq's case, he writes the darkly funny tale The Possibility of an Island, which ostensibly is a dystopian science-fiction novel, but as Houellebecq himself admits near the end, is in actuality an autobiography, his private views on all the things that happened to him as a result of Platform. And in this sense, the book is pretty much the most perfect thing he could've done after Platform -- not to try to outshock the public, which let's face it, he'll never be able to do again, but rather to reflect on both his mistakes and the ones made by the rest of the world, to mercilessly tear apart the culture of fame that made him a Continental star to begin with, and incidentally to further argue the main thrust of all of his books, i.e. that humanity is a pathetic, outdated concept that needs to be gotten rid of as soon as possible. As with his entire oeuvre, those who...(less)

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Mar 17, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Houellebecq is another writer in the grand French school of misanthropy, in the shadow of its master, Céline, but making every effort to cast his own. The Possibility of an Island is, I think, his best work to-date: bleak, brutal, funny, revolting, tender and, in the end, ineffably sad. The world of Houellebecq is one of cratered streets, perpetually in the dark because its inhabitants continually and maliciously put of the street lights to impair the ability of others to proceed safely.

The stor...more Houellebecq is another writer in the grand French school of misanthropy, in the shadow of its master, Céline, but making every effort to cast his own. The Possibility of an Island is, I think, his best work to-date: bleak, brutal, funny, revolting, tender and, in the end, ineffably sad. The world of Houellebecq is one of cratered streets, perpetually in the dark because its inhabitants continually and maliciously put of the street lights to impair the ability of others to proceed safely.

The story is that of Daniel, a bitter Frenchman from roughly our times, as told by himself and commented upon by Daniels 24 and 25, the latest in a line of neohuman clones who have descended from the original's recorded DNA. Daniel is a French comedian who, at a relatively young age, has amassed a fortune via savage and biting routines and sketches he writes and performs to amuse the bastards and monkeys. Daniel despises mankind and its contemptible—and doomed—efforts to find happiness. Railing against a society where everything is sacrificed to the young—with their luscious and virile bodies that Houellebecq describes over and over—he mocks the old—decomposing, sagging and sexually repulsive—who try ever harder, and invest ever more time, in a pitiful effort to be young themselves. It is a world for kids in every way: morally, ethically, commercially, aesthetically. Daniel tries to find love with two different women: one, his age, who can love, but hates sex; another, of the younger generation who loves sex, but is incapable of love. In between these two failed relationships—and copious graphic depictions of all forms of sexual activity—Daniel becomes involved with a new age cult, the Elohimites, who preach, basically, a life of selfish gratification—fully in tune with the times—and of the imminent arrival of a benevolent race of advanced aliens, who will soon descend to the earth to bless all their elect with (what else?) release from the bondage of death and the joys of an immortal life of pleasure. Eventually, the leadership of the cult comes to realize that, as they are well-advanced—and funded—in their genetic research, perhaps the help of the Elohim can be dispensed with and man himself realize his own salvation. This does not quite work out according to plan, as we discover in the commentary of the Daniels of the far future. Humanity is a failed concept: can the neohumans be anything but failures themselves, descended as they are from such a corrupt and conflicted source material?

Houellebecq is most definitely not a writer for everyone; the gonzo sex scenes become tiresome at times—indeed, take on the feel of gratuitous padding—and there is very little to like or admire in any of his characters. Yet he deftly dissects the obession with self, the evolution of virtue into the fulfillment of personal desire, and the sex-celebrity-youth obsessed culture that we are in the process of fully-forming in our own world. The philosophic asides are frequently trenchant, and the science-fiction aspect of the story intriguing and mysterious. The coda, in which the ultimate Daniel clone goes searching for Xanadu, ends the novel on a fittingly bleak note; there are few happy endings in Houellebecq's world. The translation is fluid and clear, allowing the strength of the prose to propel the reader along. I truly like this Frenchman's work—even if I need to take a hot bath (after hiding the razor blades) once I've finished reading.
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May 28, 2011 Margot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Qui sait ce qu'est le vrai bonheur, je ne parle pas de ce mot si galvaudé mais de cette terreur nue. Même aux âmes esseulées, il apparaît voilé. Et les plus tristes d'entre nous en gardent toujours un souvenir ou une illusion." Joseph Conrad

La dernière chose à laquelle je m'attendais en lisant les trente premières pages de ce livre, c'est que je lui attribuerais quatre étoiles. Mais la vérité est là j'ai vraiment aimé ce livre. C'est mon premier Houellebecq; ne sachant trop par où commencer je...more "Qui sait ce qu'est le vrai bonheur, je ne parle pas de ce mot si galvaudé mais de cette terreur nue. Même aux âmes esseulées, il apparaît voilé. Et les plus tristes d'entre nous en gardent toujours un souvenir ou une illusion." Joseph Conrad

La dernière chose à laquelle je m'attendais en lisant les trente premières pages de ce livre, c'est que je lui attribuerais quatre étoiles. Mais la vérité est là j'ai vraiment aimé ce livre. C'est mon premier Houellebecq; ne sachant trop par où commencer je pensais d'abord lire Les particules élémentaires. Mais en consultant le site de la librairie j'ai lu que d'après les mots mêmes de l'auteur "Je crois que c'est mon meilleur livre". Alors, mon choix c'est porté sur La Possibilité d'une île. J'ignore quelle est la qualité du premier, mais celui-là est puissant, je pense vraiment qu'il n'y a pas d'autres mots. Pour être tout à fait franche, il y a longtemps que je n'avais pas été face à un livre (et a fortiori un auteur)qui m'ait placé dans l'impossibilité de me fixer un jugement précis, clair et net. J'ai d'abord détesté le livre, je me suis dit que je ferais mieux d'abandonner, puis que la lecture serait rude jusqu'à la fin si je prenais la décision de poursuivre. Puis petit à petit, je n'ai plus eu de libre arbitre: je devais finir le roman. Cela m'était devenu nécessaire. Je me suis retrouvée à tourner les pages avec avidité, voulant à tout prix en savoir plus, pousser plus loin la découverte, et ce peu importe le prix de cette vérité, et son horreur aussi.

J'ai tellement entendu de choses concernant Houellebecq et pour la plupart elles sont sans doute vraies, mais bon sang, ce type a des choses à dire! Des choses qui sont peut-être crues, horribles, voire vulgaires, mais qui sont vraies, réelles et que bien souvent la condition humaine se refuse à voir, à regarder en face. On le compare à Celine... certes mais, pour ma part, je ne suis jamais arrivée à terminer Voyage au bout de la nuit, même après trois tentatives. J'ai dévoré le roman de Houellebecq... alors je ne sais pas quoi en penser. Peut-être que l'histoire est peu clichée, mais il faut reconnaître que Houellebecq a bien potassé et que cela tient sacrément bien la route. Rien que le choix des prénoms des protagonistes est significatif. Daniel, un des personnages les plus importants de l'Ancien Testament, préfigure du Christ, qui passa trois jours dans la fosse aux lions pour en ressortir vivant. Esther, elle-aussi figure de la Bible, étoile du soir, qui charma le roi Assuérus et sauva son peuple de la mort grâce à sa beauté, son intelligence et ses charmes. La Possibilité d'une île est un livre profond, je le pense et je l'affirme et peut-être que ça risque de surprendre, mais j'ai pleuré à certains passages parce que à la fois l'écriture et ce que l'auteur a à dire m'ont sacrément remués. Je ne suis pas quelqu'un qui aime la vulgarité, le sexe pour le sexe et les allusions grivoises lourdes et pesantes. J'ai parfois eu du mal au début avec tous les passages portés sur le sexe mais arrivée à la moitié du livre, ils m'ont moins gêné car j'ai pris conscience qu'ils n'étaient pas vide de sens mais nécessaires à la compréhension même du personnage de Daniel, et surtout à celle de l'évolution de la narration. Et c'est d'autant plus vrai maintenant que j'ai terminé le livre. Et au fond, aussi cynique, machiste, vulgaire ou quoi que ce soit d'autre qu’apparaissent ce roman et son auteur, il n'en reste pas moins que ce que j'ai retenu de ce livre, c'est avant tout que le seul moyen de parvenir au bonheur est l'AMOUR. Et c'est sans doute pour ça que certains ont dit que c'était un de ses romans les plus légers en un sens. Car au fond, ce qui en ressort est une forme d'espérance, et de foi (au sens propre) en l'amour.

Il y a à de nombreuses reprises des allusions aux diverses religions, notamment le bouddhisme, qui semble être en partie la base de la religion des Elohims. Peut-être qu'au fond, Daniel25 est le seul à avoir atteint le Nirvana, c'est-à-dire à être parvenu à se libérer des cycles des réincarnations. De manière purement métaphorique bien évidemment. Mais il a compris, après lecture du récit de vie de Daniel1, qu'au fond, son existence n'avait plus vraiment de sens et que la possibilité de l'immortalité, de l'existence éternelle, de l'accès à l'infini, n'avait absolument aucune valeur sans quelqu'un pour partager cette expérience, et que la vie des néo-humains n'était qu'une étape intermédiaire vers un devenir qui serait (éventuellement) meilleur. Éventuellement. Ce qui manquait à Daniel25, et qu'il confesse lui-même, ce sont les possibilités, le devoir de faire un choix. Aussi cynique qu'ait pu être Daniel1, tout ce qu'il recherchait et souhaitait c'était la chaleur des bras d'une femme, ce sentiment d'appartenance qui l'envahissait lors des étreintes avec Isabelle d'abord, et Esther ensuite.

"Il n'y a pas d'amour dans la liberté individuelle, dans l'indépendance, c'est tout simplement un mensonge, et l'un des plus grossiers qui se puisse concevoir; il n'y a d'amour que dans le désir d'anéantissement, de fusion, de disparition individuelle, dans une sorte comme on disait de "sentiment océanique", dans quelque chose de toute façon qui était, au moins dans un futur proche, condamné".

Ce que j'ai trouvé le plus tragique, c'est ce vieillissement du personnage de Daniel, et d'Isabelle aussi, dans cette période terrible où le désir de possibilités se trouve accru par l’éminence d'une fin que l'on sait prochaine, et parallèlement, la diminution de ces possibilités par ce même vieillissement. Je pense vraiment que c'est là ce que Daniel cherche à mettre en avant et qui explique cette engouement pour les élohimites. Cette idée d'une énergie immense qui jaillit et qui pourtant se trouve confinée dans un espace clos qui en tue par là-même toute la vigueur. Il n'y a rien de plus tragique, surtout pour un homme qui a l'honnêteté et la vision du monde qui sont celles du protagonistes. Le "Je t'aime encore" d'Isabelle, jeté comme ça au détour d'une conversation, froid, nu, mais vrai; voilà des choses qui m'ont émue et remuée. Je crois que la fin du récit de Daniel a été pour moi le moment le plus fort, et surtout le dernier poème qu'il a écrit:

"Ma vie, ma vie, ma très ancienne
Mon premier voeu mal refermé,
Mon premier amour infirmé,
Il a fallu que tu reviennes.

Il a fallu que je connaisse
Ce que la vie a de meilleur,
Quand deux corps jouent de leur bonheur
Et sans fin s'unissent et renaissent.

Entré en dépendance entière,
Je sais le tremblement de l'être
L'hésitation à disparaître,
Le soleil qui frappe en lisière

Et l'amour, où tout est facile,
Où tout est donné dans l'instant;
Il existe au milieu du temps
La possibilité d'une île."

J'ai vraiment cherché à vous convaincre de la beauté de ce roman. S'il vous plaît, allez au-delà de l'image et lisez Houellebecq! (less)

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Dec 19, 2011 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who hate humanity but at least can laugh at it.

I was recently in a class where the teacher was talking about how "meaning" is derived from literature through subtext. Most literature in the past generated subtext in opposition to cultural norms or censorship imposed by the author or society. A classic example might be Hemingway's story "Hills like White Elephants," which deals with abortion only subtextually because stories about abortion were simply not written at the time.

So the question becomes: In a society where nothing is taboo and eve...more

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Jul 09, 2010 Rhonda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-and-fantasy, politics, psychology, sociology, theology, philosophy, modern-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have been troubling over a way in which I might summarize this troubling book and I have decided that it is best represented by a well known Pascal quote:
"lus je vois l'homme, plus j'aimie mon chien. Yes, that is the positive aspects of this book in a nutshell. In fact, when the protagonist’s dog, Fox, was killed, I cried, unable to stop for several minutes. The rest is a depiction of a social fabric which has torn itself to rags and threads of pseudo-value.
This is a difficult book, one wo...more I have been troubling over a way in which I might summarize this troubling book and I have decided that it is best represented by a well known Pascal quote:
"lus je vois l'homme, plus j'aimie mon chien. Yes, that is the positive aspects of this book in a nutshell. In fact, when the protagonist’s dog, Fox, was killed, I cried, unable to stop for several minutes. The rest is a depiction of a social fabric which has torn itself to rags and threads of pseudo-value.
This is a difficult book, one would almost call it deceptively erudite as Houellebecq throws out concepts and ideas as if he were handing out menus to a deli on a busy New York street. It seems odd that one should have to read Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and even Heidegger before one can truly understand he is saying but, alas, it seems true: even his jokes, which are extremely funny, are so arcane that they often seem transparent.
For the first half of the book, I filled up pages and pages of quotes, even the dirty ones, because I found them all so intelligent and wonderful. After that, it wasn’t quite that I was bored with the idea as I was beginning to wonder where the book was going. In truth, close to the end, I suspected that it wasn’t going anywhere and would do something “poetic” like hang the reader out to dry. In truth, it almost did.
If I understand this any better than I did before I read it, I believe that the Epilogue was written first and then he constructed the entire book around the character. If I had a criticism of the book, I might argue that it isn’t a perfect fit either, but that would be quibbling.
As with Particles, none of the characters is very admirable, least of which is the protagonist. He is a sexist loutish pig, but someone not out of character with the modern day man who sees wealth and sexual power as the pinnacle of expression. In fact it was easy to recognize the women too, fixated on being anyone but themselves, all the time insisting on their freedom to become something that meanders into nothingness without a care in the world except the self’s expression. It is a rather ugly look at, it finally strikes one, the modern world and where mankind seems to want to go right now. If it takes one longer than 100 pages to realize that he or she is looking in a mirror, one has perhaps missed the entire point.
H. has devised a kind of science fiction in which the self is created in a neo-human way through copying DNA. You don’t find that out until about 200 pages has gone by and in the meantime you are reading about these people like Daniel 1,9 and Daniel 25,1 and all these other people with numbers after their first name. I almost went back and started again convinced I had missed something but I hadn’t. It’s just slow in coming and in the meantime he is hawking Schopenhauer (the concept of the infinite life cycle) and making fun of people like Teilhard de Chardin and Hegel. I didn’t quite get why he didn’t like Hegel, but maybe he was too much of a Schopenhauerian. I even considered that Houellebecq himself was one of the neo-human forms of Schopenhauer. Maybe that is one of the only ways in which this book makes sense anyway.
This book affects you deeply when you read it, especially if you take it to heart, something on the order of reading Dickens, except that no one really wins out in the end. The Island is, after all, only a possibility, a place where one might live, even after becoming neo-human, but my skepticism tells me that he doesn’t think it either likely or something which will catch on. Play that dirty music, white boy!
Still he mentions Spinoza twice and it made me think of how he meant to evoke his spirit…and then I realized that this was a positive hidden thing. One gathers that the possibility of modern society rediscovering the meaning of living is probably pretty slim. Still, even as this is an indictment of our modern age, I couldn’t help but think of Dante’s Paradiso in Canto 29 where he says, “I would not have you doubt, but have you know surely that there is merit in receiving grace, measured by the longing to receive it.” Perhaps then even this diatribe against what we have become in our little planet has the solace in understanding that our acknowledgement of our hubris is the beginning of a better way. At least we have the sense to know that our pets are more deserving than are we.

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Feb 10, 2013 Leonard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature-french

The species have reached immortality. Through cloning and the propagation of historical memories. But the time of the humans is over. It is the age of the neo-humans, clones without joy and grief, without neurosis, without community, without sexual desires. Only a lifetime of reviewing and of analyzing the life of the human from which their DNA came. A lifetime of isolation, except for a pet. A lifetime of pseudo-touch through electronic communications. A lifetime of reflection and contemplation...more

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Aug 25, 2010 Ben Babcock rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: via-io9, from-library, 2010-read, literary-pretentious, post-apocalyptic, posthuman, religion-fiction, science-fiction, translated

Do you want to live forever? Most people would say yes. I have to confess immortality tempts me as well. But as with most wishes, this one needs conditionals and caveats to make it truly comfortable. After all, you wouldn't want to be immortal but keep ageing, right? And being immortal alone would really suck, watching everyone else grow old and die as you remain the same. There are basically two ways to solve the ageing problem: either find a way to stop the body from ageing, or find a way to r...more

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Feb 17, 2008 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: misanthropes

It came as no surprise when I discovered Michel Houellebecq is an H.P. Lovecraft fan; while lacking the Providence gentleman's penchant for probing the dark corners of the universe and the horrors that lurk therein, Houellebecq shares the same, pessimistic view of the universe and humanity's place in it. We are, more or less, a mistake and everything we do, think and are is ultimately inconsequential and devoid of meaning.

The Possibility of an Island is often referred to as Houellebecq's magnum...more

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Nov 11, 2007 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

The first great novel of the twenty-first century written by the only writer living today who really matters. Houellebecq in the year 2005 did what Aldous Huxley did in Brave New World in 1932..., except that Houellebecq's characters are so much more well-defined, real and wacky...(utterly our age...)...
This novel, like "Les Particules Elementaires" goes off on crazy philosophical tangents in which the narractive stream of the novel disappears and we are subjected to bold and controversial cri...more

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Jun 02, 2008 TS rated it 2 of 5 stars

Well executed. But basically this is Dostoyevskian anti-hero with a lapsed viagra prescription meets Oryx and Crake. A nihilist Eurotrash's memoir told before and after an apocalypse. The end was quite underwhelming, vegetative shall we say. This depressing story effectively depicts the malaise of male middle age, sexual insecurities, selfishness. None of the characters seemed to achieve any sense of redemption or growth- perhaps his last girlfriend, the impossibly beautiful nymphette Esther. Bu...more

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Jun 07, 2008 Heather rated it 2 of 5 stars

well. this is the first time i've felt stumped at the prospect of giving a review. as mentioned earlier, this book gave me weird sex dreams. there is a lot of straight sex, and the (original) protagonist is quite the prick, pun intended. but he's an astute prick, and so this book is full of many wry, poignant and philosophical observations.

thus i kept going, despite his propensity to ramble...i mean *seriously* ramble. i don't know the last time i skimmed so much.

the mixing of future and presen...more

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Aug 14, 2007 anne rated it 2 of 5 stars

Overall, I thought this was a waste of my time. I've read all his books, and I'm not exactly sure why at this point, other than that he's French and controversial, so therefore I should like him. This one was probably better than his others (I especially liked his relationship with his dog, Marie, and the final scenes as he goes off alone), but I still think Houellebecq's rather untalented as a writer relative to his fame, and his ideas aren't particularly interesting to me. As a public figure,...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Mangoo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quarta incarnazione del punto di vista di Houellebecq sulla vita e sul mondo, inferiore a "Les particules" ma migliore di "Plateforme".
Si ricollega al suo secondo romanzo con l'attuazione di quella immortalità che il fratello geniale della coppia aveva architettato. Qui l'immortalità è il pretesto per una lunga serie di considerazioni, sul cui sfondo si staglia, sempre più insistentemente sebbene mai esplicitamente avanzando nella lettura, l'idea di eterno ritorno dell'uguale di Nietzschiana mem...more Quarta incarnazione del punto di vista di Houellebecq sulla vita e sul mondo, inferiore a "Les particules" ma migliore di "Plateforme".
Si ricollega al suo secondo romanzo con l'attuazione di quella immortalità che il fratello geniale della coppia aveva architettato. Qui l'immortalità è il pretesto per una lunga serie di considerazioni, sul cui sfondo si staglia, sempre più insistentemente sebbene mai esplicitamente avanzando nella lettura, l'idea di eterno ritorno dell'uguale di Nietzschiana memoria (o previsione). Il tutto in una struttura narrativa originale a pettine, in cui la narrazione della biografia dell'umano (appunto il nuovo avatar di Houellebecq, questa volta un comico con le sue solite caratteristiche di cinismo, sarcasmo, riduzionismo brutale e riflessione intellettuale all'insegna del disprezzo sostanziale della massa e della critica distaccata della società moderna) si alterna ai commenti che ne fanno i suoi discendenti, in tutto uguali a lui per via della rigenerazione di corpi a partire dal DNA dell'umano iniziale. In sostanza, da una parte c'è la narrazione del personaggio che va incontro alla "singolarità" (la chiamo così, anche se, e può essere strano per uno informato come l'autore, non c'è alcun richiamo di sorta al concetto transumanista di singolarità, nè all'accelerazione tecnologica dei tempi) dal presente, e in contrappunto il commento distande 2 millenni di chi si trova a vivere 24 e 25 generazioni dopo di essa.
Houellebecq è comunque logorroico, e il libro poteva probabilmente essere più asciutto e breve. Ci sono pochissimi dialoghi, l'azione è poca e in ogni caso subissata dalle elucubrazioni continue dell'avatar houellebecqiano. In particolare, ma senza troppa sorpresa, il sesso ha un posto di predominanza tra le sensazioni e le esperienze che donano senso alla vita. I neo-umani sono invece rappresentati come entità puramente intellettuali, isolate fisicamente in delle cellule interconnesse via internet e senza possibilità di interazione corporea. Ciò che ne viene immortalato è il loro sguardo disilluso e completamente meccanicistico sulla realtà, ovvero sono eternamente vecchi e non scopano.
L'idea geniale è stata di far introdurre i mezzi tecnici dell'immortalità basata sulla riproduzione esatta del DNA individuale da parte di una setta religiosa (elohimiti), che progressivamente, si legge, si estese a prendere il sopravvento su tutte le altre per il suo soddisfare quel desiderio di prevaricazione oltre la morte attraverso la tecnica, anche se la vita eterna, sembra far capire l'autore, sarà una noia mortale.(less)

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Mar 01, 2013 Pablo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Less entertaining, longer and less imaginative than the previous Platform, this cloning story has all the elements that make Houellebecq a recognizable author: the incredibly pessimistic storyteller that always recalls an over-sexual and cynical version of Schopenhauer, the beautiful and ready-for-the-wild-sex woman that falls in love with him and the particularly contemporary elements that establish a more or less provocative criticism of the way we live now.

There's a lot of cynicism but this...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Daniel Etherington rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, science-fiction, speculative, france, contemporary

Part philosophy, part apocalyptic science fiction, part crude porn, Houellebecq's book is typically misanthropic, and typically not a barrel of laughs - despite the fact that his main character (in the contemporary time-frame sections of the book) is a successful comic, stand-up and screenwriter.

Indeed, one of the many flaws of the book is how it's hard to make the leap to believing this character, Daniel (or Daniel1), is or could be funny. Houellebecq just doesn't credibly etch even a whiff of...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was with a great deal of excitement that I got stuck into Houellebecqs latest and nearly 10 days later, a degree of disappointment.

There are some great moments here with more ideas and humour than you could expect to find in 10 other books but this is too much of a retred for the author and overlong.

Told in alternating chapters of Daniel (modern day stand up comedian) and his cloned future offspring (Daniel23 and 24) it charts the usual themes of lonliness, sex, moral corruption, parenthood,...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Alec Beattie rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's difficult to read this novel without asking if Houellebecq is (a) misanthropic; (b) misogynistic ; (c) a pornographer and (d) racist.I'd say he's a blend of all four which makes large swathes of 'Possiblity' difficult, pointless and boring to read.
Still, he's got some good ideas he works through and has a lot of well-observed ideas about contemporary society and where it might end up.
However, I think his idea of immortality is flawed; we need to evolve as a species otherwise we'd simply die...more

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Jun 02, 2012 ΑνναΦ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: letteratura-francese

Poiché la vita è solo dolore

Lo sapevo: il solito scrittore maledetto, cinico e baro, sotto la dura scorsa un cuore tenero e ferito, si pensa chiudendo il libro.
Leggendo per la prima volta Houellebecq ciò che colpisce è il linguaggio erotico esplicito, non amante delle perifrasi ma anche poetico di un lirismo denso, desolato, talvolta irresistibilmente ironico.
In questo libro siamo messi di fronte all'implosione del sistema occidentale con i suoi falsi miti di eterna giovinezza e consumismo, alla...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Joseph rated it 5 of 5 stars

Brutally funny, this novel pulls no punches on the human condition. While reading, I was consistently reminded of California poet Robinson Jeffer's doctrine of inhumanism, which seeks to remove the human from the center of the epistemology of the world, and place it back on the edges, as just another element in the playroom of Nature. Houllebecq likewise makes very serious play of humanity and its self-obsessions, which he portrays as the cause of the ultimate destruction of the Natural world. I...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mainstream, review_fbc, genre-sf, read_2012

I plan to have a full review on FBC soon so a few points;

it is very sfnal as an alternate narrative from Daniel 1, an aging comedian and Daniel 24 and Daniel 25, his future genetic descendants in a post apocalyptic future a few millenia down the road and the author shows once again why (like Daniel 1 who is a very controversial comedian too) any of his novels will be sure to get the establishment riled, the pc crowd baying for his blood (after Platform, they tried him in France, home of Marquis...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Mark Harding rated it 5 of 5 stars

There’s a shock at first, with the complete lack of any sign of affection, ‘respect’ for others, attention to the verities of romance etc. But you get used to it: and frankly, such an attitude of having no respect for social pretenses does work to make you re-think the world around you.

One of the things I really liked was that the pitiless and heartless view is turned on everything: the Art World, Politics, Business, the media world. The book (publ 2005 in English translation) effortless analyse...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

Michel Houllebecq's novel, The Possibility of An Island, is essentially a futuristic dystopian fable not unlike Cormac McCarthy's The Road or the film Children of Men. At first, I thought the idea of Houllebecq writing a Sci-Fi novel seemed not only implausible but also tedious. In actuality, he has stuck to most of his broad and challenging themes from earlier novels: youth, beauty, sex, regret, suffering, aging, death. However, he seems to have lost his sense of humor, this novel is missing hi...more Michel Houllebecq's novel, The Possibility of An Island, is essentially a futuristic dystopian fable not unlike Cormac McCarthy's The Road or the film Children of Men. At first, I thought the idea of Houllebecq writing a Sci-Fi novel seemed not only implausible but also tedious. In actuality, he has stuck to most of his broad and challenging themes from earlier novels: youth, beauty, sex, regret, suffering, aging, death. However, he seems to have lost his sense of humor, this novel is missing his outrageous descriptions and interactions between people that informed novels like Platform and Whatever. His lack of humor is ironic since his main character Daniel is a sort of highbrow comedian, which he uses to shock with his non-PC banter with his usual attacks on Muslims and Jews: some titles of his fictional comic work include We Prefer the Palestinian Sluts, Lets Drop Miniskirts On The Palestinians, etc... Anyway, Daniel flits through life and then has an affair with Isabelle (a woman who loves but doesn't enjoy sex) and then a more damaging affair with the younger Esther (a woman who enjoy sex but doesn't love). Both of these failed relationships are related by the journals of the original Daniel and cause him damage that leads him to join a cult called the Elohomites, which manages to clone humans or create what he calls neohumans. He is surprisingly earnest about this cult, probably because it is central to the plot of the novel. The chapters of the novel alternate between the original Daniel and his neohuman clone of the future Daniel25. Houllebecq's vision of the future is a dystopian wasteland where packs of savage humans roams the deserted roads calls to mind Children of Men and The Road. Furthermore, his future is an evolution of developed countries that are reproducing less and less and finally reproduction is taken over by cloning. The last part of the book is a journey in the wasteland among the damned much like that of The Road. I still find Houllenbecq challenging in his discussion of big ideas and themes, however, I think this might be his weakest novel to date, but still worth while because he always challenges you think about the love, life and death and what it means to be human. Surprisingly, the metaphor of the island is a symbol of hope, an idea that punctuates both Children of Men and The Road as well.(less)

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Jul 28, 2011 Derek Baldwin rated it 3 of 5 stars

All of Houellebecq's books that I have read are as much concerned with philosophy - in the widest sense - as with narrative. This is no exception, and it makes some important points very well on subjects like commoditization, the cult of youth, the pointlessness of organised religion, and so on. The parallel narrative set partly in the present day and partly 2000 years into the future (and it's a bleak one!) is interesting too. And yet, somehow, it doesn't entirely gel satisfactorily. There is s...more

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May 14, 2011 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Could perhaps be subtitled "The Impossibility of Love": like Elementary Particles, the central character is a disenchanted, somewhat misanthropic middle-aged Frenchman whose mind is rarely not on getting much younger women into bed. This is in many respects a philosophical novel, but too much science fiction and garden-variety sex costs you points in the high-brow literary fiction market (outré sex, à la Story of The Eye, has more heft). Ultimately Houellebecq uses the idea of cloning and geneti...more

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Apr 26, 2011 John Christy rated it 5 of 5 stars

After something of a sputtering with Platform, Houellebecq is in high form here with Possibility of an Island. He admitted himself that Platform was a failure partially because the idea behind Possibility was clunking around in his head as he wrote Platform. That's interesting . . .

This book has a number of high marks. Houellebecq isn't thought of as a sci-fi writer, but his science fiction scenarios have a quiet elegance to them, a sort of foreboding and sense of inevitability. In this sense, h...more After something of a sputtering with Platform, Houellebecq is in high form here with Possibility of an Island. He admitted himself that Platform was a failure partially because the idea behind Possibility was clunking around in his head as he wrote Platform. That's interesting . . .

This book has a number of high marks. Houellebecq isn't thought of as a sci-fi writer, but his science fiction scenarios have a quiet elegance to them, a sort of foreboding and sense of inevitability. In this sense, he matches and exceeds traditional science fiction writers. In a way, I wonder if his return to form here has something to do with his subject matter. Houellebecq is, of course, brilliant in Platform, but without the aspirations inherent in writing scifi, it could be that he surrendered to a smallness in thinking.

Radikal Hip Hop... Houellebecq (this is the second time I've written Celine in place of his name, despite that their writing is not similar in the least) has a brutal mind for the kitsch. In fact, there's a hilarious line on kitsch and its relation to art: "everything is kitsch, if you like. music as a whole is kitsch; art is kitsch; literature itself is kitsch. any emotion is kitsch, practically by definition; but any reflection also, and even in a sense any action, the only thing that is not absolutely kitsch is nothingness." It's great to see that Houellebecq isn't afraid of developing what is essentially a hipster's aesthetic. Funny and a little unnerving at the same time - could it be that the hipsters have had it right all along?

This book is simultaneously more and less allusive than Houellebecq's previous work. Where there would be a two page essay in Elementary particles, there is a paragraph or two here. On the other hand, Houellebecq now seems to have no problem casually namedropping Celine, Rochefoucauld, Rochelle, and so on. This signals, I think, an efficiency in thinking and more of a thought for form - after all, by this point Houellebecq has enough credibility that his mentioning "Rochefoucauld" should be enough for the dedicated reader to look the man up for himself. I agree - Good job!

Looking forward to reading The Map and the Territory. Bravo, Houellebecq. By the way, there is a picture of him that was published recently where he looks exactly like Celine - it's bizarre(less)

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Jan 29, 2011 Tancredi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: strano-forte, preferiti, francesi

Audace, controverso, coraggioso romanzo. "La possibilità di un'isola" è un Houellebcq finalmente libero, a briglie sciolte, che può finalmente superare se stesso. Leggendo prima questo romanzo e poi il precedente "Le particelle elementari" ho avuto l'impressione che in quest'ultimo vi fossero dei temi e delle idee implicite, accennate, e che finalmente vengono sviluppate. "Le particelle elementari" si era chiuso con uno strano finale fantascientifico: adesso la fantescienza, l'utopia, sono eleme...more Audace, controverso, coraggioso romanzo. "La possibilità di un'isola" è un Houellebcq finalmente libero, a briglie sciolte, che può finalmente superare se stesso. Leggendo prima questo romanzo e poi il precedente "Le particelle elementari" ho avuto l'impressione che in quest'ultimo vi fossero dei temi e delle idee implicite, accennate, e che finalmente vengono sviluppate. "Le particelle elementari" si era chiuso con uno strano finale fantascientifico: adesso la fantescienza, l'utopia, sono elementi che dominano tutto il romanzo.
La narrazione è sospesa tra due piani, anche temporali, diversi. Da un lato le vicende di Daniel1, ai nostri giorni, che mostrano un Houellebecq al meglio di sé: ritorano qui, con una maggiore raffinatezza, le sue idee filosofiche, accompagnate da un cinismo ed un sarcasmo molto più sottile, elegante. Dall'altro lato, la narrazione di Daniel24 - poi Daniel25- un clone del primo Daniel, in un futuro lontano che ci restituisce un pianeta trasfigurato, ostile ed estraneo. Grande la ricchezza verbale, grande la capacità espressiva: l'autore ci offre un autentico caleidoscopio di immagini e sensazioni diverse. Con un magnificente uso della narrazione in prima persona, scolpisce una caratterizzazione che non ho mai visto altrove. L'elemento fantascientifico, poi, si lega benissimo alla sua filosofia: la clonazione umana e la mutazione genetica come possibilità di salvezza e redenzione del genere umano. Una via di fuga già accennata precedentemente, e che qui viene messa in atto. Ma mentre seguiamo le ultime pagine di Daniel1, prossimo alla clonazione, emerge con chiarezza che la salvezza sta altrove. Finalmente, l'amore. E' un Daniel1 disperato e svuotato dall'amore che lo dice apertamente, in una poesia:

<< e l'amore, in cui è tutto facile,
in cui tutto è dato nell'attimo;
esiste in mezzo al tempo
la possibilità di un'isola. >>

ed è anche Daniel25 che lo scopre, a sue spese, in un finale improvviso e travolgente.

Un capolavoro. La letteratura non è mai stata così sublime.

(less)

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Oct 18, 2010 Nathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was almost a science fiction novel, set in the present, paralleled with vignettes in the future when a religion based on unbridled carnality and technology has created conditions for which "neohumans" can exist eternally as repeated versions of former humans. The prevailing depravity of the human impulse to destroy derails the possibility that this experience can offer mankind, or its newest iteration, any kind of joy. (Swing and a miss, technology.) The novel is structured with alternating...more

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Jan 25, 2010 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, french, fiction, isolation, survival, dystopia, nihilism, male-author

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...more

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Aug 24, 2009 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In certain ways, this novel picks up and develops a theme suggested in Houellebecq's earlier novel "Elementary Particles" (also translated as "Atomized"): human existence is so fraught with suffering and frustration that the only hope is in some "post-human" society. Here, though, the nihilism goes further, for there is not much hope for post-humans either. "The Possibility of an Island" takes place in two time periods. The base story, that of Daniel 1, is a search for love in a cruel world, our...more In certain ways, this novel picks up and develops a theme suggested in Houellebecq's earlier novel "Elementary Particles" (also translated as "Atomized"): human existence is so fraught with suffering and frustration that the only hope is in some "post-human" society. Here, though, the nihilism goes further, for there is not much hope for post-humans either. "The Possibility of an Island" takes place in two time periods. The base story, that of Daniel 1, is a search for love in a cruel world, our world, which belongs to the young and thus can only grow colder and crueler as sexuality wanes and impotent old age comes on. Daniel 1's only hope is in the immortality promised by a new religion, the Elohimists, who oppose procreation and develop instead a way of cloning so that every member of the religion establishes a sequence of "me's"! Each of these successors, Daniel 2, 3, etc. writes a commentary on the "life story" of the original ancestor, the first in the cloning sequence. So in the second time frame we meet Daniel 25, a post-human several millenia down the sequence who lives in complete isolation, the pain caused by human sociability having been rejected in favor of a more painless, isolated existence ("hell is others," as Jean-Paul Sartre so famously said). But Daniel 25 has not truly transcended sociability and feels something we might call a desire at least to experience desire. So he leaves his rather insipid existence to wander through a post-apocalyptic world (a world a bit like Cormac McCarthy's "The Road") in search of some new possibility--the possibility of an island, so to speak. This is all rather complicated, and one must simply read the novel to understand (or maybe not understand) how this all works. Houellebecq, one of the bad boys of modern French literature, remains for me a fascinating and sometimes frustrating novelist. His nihilism exists in tension with surprising tenderness and longing, his unrelenting anti-humanism permeated with a sense of, yes, humanism! One can be appalled at his obsession with sex and at his sometimes immature jabs at Islam and then suddenly be deeply moved by the sharp portrayal of his characters' suffering. Gosh, in this novel there is even a tear-jerking dying dog scene! He is, moreover, a very astute observer and critic of our crass, youth-worshiping society. But he continues to identify life with sex, and thus we are all condemned, ultimately, to disappointment and suffering. In fact, as sexuality declines, suicide seems to become the only rationale option. This unrelenting sex-linked nihilism (and I mean sex-linked both in the sense of linked to sex and linked to males) can become tedious. Dare I suggest that life holds other pleasures . . . like reading Houellebecq, for example?(less)

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About Michel Houellebecq

Michel Houellebecq (born Michel Thomas), born 26 February 1958 (birth certificate) or 1956 on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French novelist. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire; to detractors he is a peddler of sleaze and shock. Having written poetry and a biography of the h...more

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“Youth was the time for happiness, its only season; young people, leading a lazy, carefree life, partially occupied by scarcely absorbing studies, were able to devote themselves unlimitedly to the liberated exultation of their bodies. They could play, dance, love, and multiply their pleasures. They could leave a party, in the early hours of the morning, in the company of sexual partners they had chosen, and contemplate the dreary line of employees going to work. They were the salt of the earth, and everything was given to them, everything was permitted for them, everything was possible. Later on, having started a family, having entered the adult world, they would be introduced to worry, work, responsibility, and the difficulties of existence; they would have to pay taxes, submit themselves to administrative formalities while ceaselessly bearing witness--powerless and shame-filled--to the irreversible degradation of their own bodies, which would be slow at first, then increasingly rapid; above all, they would have to look after children, mortal enemies, in their own homes, they would have to pamper them, feed them, worry about their illnesses, provide the means for their education and their pleasure, and unlike in the world of animals, this would last not just for a season, they would remain slaves of their offspring always, the time of joy was well and truly over for them, they would have to continue to suffer until the end, in pain and with increasing health problems, until they were no longer good for anything and were definitively thrown into the rubbish heap, cumbersome and useless. In return, their children would not be at all grateful, on the contrary their efforts, however strenuous, would never be considered enough, they would, until the bitter end, be considered guilty because of the simple fact of being parents. From this sad life, marked by shame, all joy would be pitilessly banished. When they wanted to draw near to young people's bodies, they would be chased away, rejected, ridiculed, insulted, and, more and more often nowadays, imprisoned. The physical bodies of young people, the only desirable possession the world has ever produced, were reserved for the exclusive use of the young, and the fate of the old was to work and to suffer. This was the true meaning of solidarity between generations; it was a pure and simple holocaust of each generation in favor of the one that replaced it, a cruel, prolonged holocaust that brought with it no consolation, no comfort, nor any material or emotional compensation.” — 21 people liked it

“Et l'amour, où tout est facile,
Où tout est donné dans l'instant;
Il existe au milieu du temps
La possibilité d'une île.” — 21 people liked it

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