24%OFF
Stock image for illustration purposes only - book cover, edition or condition may vary.
Whatever
Michel Houellebecq
€ 13.99
€ 10.66
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for Whatever
Paperback. A computer programmer by day, he is tolerably content, until he's packed off with a colleague - the sexually-frustrated Raphael Tisserand - to train provincial civil servants in the use of a new computer system. Series: Serpent's Tail Classics. Num Pages: 160 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 133 x 11. Weight in Grams: 120.
Just thirty, with a well-paid job, no love life and a terrible attitude, the anti-hero of this grim, funny novel smokes four packs of cigarettes a day and writes weird animal stories in his spare time. A computer programmer by day, he is tolerably content, until he's packed off with a colleague - the sexually-frustrated Raphael Tisserand - to train provincial civil servants in the use of a new computer system Houellebecq's first novel was a smash hit in France, expressing the misanthropic voice of a generation. Like A Confederacy of Dunces, Houellebecq's bitter, sarcastic and exasperated narrator vociferously expresses his frustration and disgust with the world.
Product Details
Publisher
Serpent's Tail
Number of pages
160
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2011
Series
Serpent's Tail Classics
Condition
New
Number of Pages
160
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781846687846
SKU
V9781846687846
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-99
About Michel Houellebecq
Novelist and poet Michel Houellebecq was born in 1958, on the French island of Reunion. At the age of six, Michel was given over to the care of his paternal grandmother, a communist, whose family name he later adopted. Houellebecq has won many prizes, including the Prix Flore in 1996, the Grand Prix National des Lettres Jeunes Talents in 1998, the Prix Novembre and, most recently, the Prix Goncourt in 2010. His first album, Presence Humaine, was released in 2000. He currently lives in Spain.
Reviews for Whatever
Funny, terrifying and nauseating
Independent
The balance between philosophy and narrative detail is perfectly judged; the book slips down easily like a bad oyster. As is the nature of such things, it is grimly comic
Nicholas Lezard
Guardian
Le grand fromage du jour
The Face
It could well turn out to be a cult here too ... astonishing
Time Out
Snappy, bite-sized, and often very funny. Is it European exhaustion? Is it the soul of man under late capitalism? Millenial gloom? Post-Christian despair? Is it the death of love? Whatever. But Houellebecq describes it perfectly
Literary Review
This boy needs serious therapy. He may be beyond help
Washington Post
The mischief-making enfant terrible of new-wave French fiction
Independent
Houellebecq captures precisely the cynical disillusionment of disaffected youth
Booklist
Independent
The balance between philosophy and narrative detail is perfectly judged; the book slips down easily like a bad oyster. As is the nature of such things, it is grimly comic
Nicholas Lezard
Guardian
Le grand fromage du jour
The Face
It could well turn out to be a cult here too ... astonishing
Time Out
Snappy, bite-sized, and often very funny. Is it European exhaustion? Is it the soul of man under late capitalism? Millenial gloom? Post-Christian despair? Is it the death of love? Whatever. But Houellebecq describes it perfectly
Literary Review
This boy needs serious therapy. He may be beyond help
Washington Post
The mischief-making enfant terrible of new-wave French fiction
Independent
Houellebecq captures precisely the cynical disillusionment of disaffected youth
Booklist