Anéantir

“It would be a catharsis if Anéantir reflected our times, but instead it clings to current events in their most ordinary, mediocre and ephemeral form. If only it gave back something of the spirit of the age — but no. (…) What is it about? Chinese solar panels, an election campaign, boomer psychology, technology transfers, Breivik, urban loneliness, fertility rates, nihilism, strokes, inheritance law, the selfish gene, sexual misery, the Rassemblement national, Zemmour, the Beijing–Washington trade war, dreams, chaos, Islam, biotechnology, Sephardic dentists, Le Lambeau, euthanasia, more dreams, another election campaign, a lack of public recognition, more dreams… (a non-exhaustive inventory). And then love, always, which he repeats is his main subject. But do we turn to literature to find the evening news on France 2? At times it evokes Baron noir, a hope soon dashed, since the novel is far less cruel” (Pierre Assouline).
Anéantir is neither a page-turner nor a suspense novel. Assouline is right: “it aims to be a thriller, but on that front Grangé, Chattam, Minier and Thilliez have nothing to worry about.” Yet the unsettling threat that Houellebecq casts over our society is still present. On this point his vision is clear: our civilization has embarked on a generalized decay, and it will need no one’s help to achieve it.