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Lanzarote by: Michel Houellebecq List Price: £6.99 City Travel Guides Price: £5.49 You Save: £1.50 (21%)Prices subject to change. |
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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9780099448365 ISBN: 009944836X Label: Vintage Manufacturer: Vintage Number Of Pages: 112 Publication Date: June 03, 2004 Publisher: Vintage Studio: Vintage Sales Rank: 75472 Related Items: Related Items:   ![Atomised [2006]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000GRUS9K.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)   see moreBrowse for similar items by category:
Editorial Review: Book Description: In the follow-up to his hugely successful and Impac award-winning Atomised, Michel Houellebecq explores the hedonism of Lanzarote, the archetypal holiday island, in a book that is as blisteringly funny and acid as his novel. Synopsis: In the sector of the holiday market that caters for sun, sangria and house music, not to mention sex, Lanzarote rivals Corfu and Ibiza. Tourism in Lanzarote remains resolutely ungreen and certainly wholly uncultural, 21st century hedonism, set in a bizarre lunar landscape - Martian, according to the travel agent. On Lanzarote, one can meet some fascinating human specimens - notably Pam and Barbara, 'non-exclusive' German lesbians - who can give rise to some interesting combinations. Will they succeed in seducing Rudi, the police inspector from Luxembourg, currently living in exile in Brussels. Or will he join the 'azraelian' sect, as they prepare for humanity to be regenerated by extra-terrestrials? As for our narrator, will he consider his week's holiday on the island a success? From the Publisher: 'Tremendously enjoyable' Times Literary Supplement About the Author: A poet, essayist and novelist, Michel Houellebecq is the author of three novels, Atomised (Les Particules -l-mentaires), Platform (Plateforme) and Whatever (Extension de la domaine de la lutte). He lives in Ireland. Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Lanzarote is one of the most beautiful islands in EuropeHow dare they call Lanzarote uncultural and hedonistic? It is not the island that is uncultural and hedonistic but the badly educated common tourists that travel there and remain in their small enclaves of english larger louts and retired, beer bellied, uncultured, not speaking a word of Spanish and loud British citizens. I grew up in Lanzarote and excluding certain tourist destinations (Costa Teguise, Playa Blanca and Playa del Carmen) it is a stunning island with very friendly laid back people. If people decide to stay for 7 nights in their villa surrounded by blackboards that tell us proudly that they serve English fried breakfasts at 2 euros (in 30 degree heat) then very well, but please don't judge a stunning volcanic island ... Read More: Rating: - Nothing to offerLoved his other books - not this one though. It covers many of the same themes but nowhere near as well. Usually his books are very funny - again this was very light on the humour. Rating: - BetrayalI have given this 'pamphlet' one star because reading Houellebecq at this level is still better than reading most things. Anyone who read Atomised and Platform will feel utterly betrayed by this half hearted attempt, and anyone who hasn't read Houellebecq before would be better advised to go for those titles - they are superb. Rating:  - When a snack is as tasty as a meal.Mixed reviews for the hardback version of this book, mostly regarding its length. I enjoyed it immensely, but then, I never really got into 'Atomised', much preferring 'Platform'. OK, 'Lanzarote' is a short (very short) story, in which nothing much happens. Whereas it was said of Beckett's greatest play 'nothing happens... twice', it could be argued that in 'Lanzarote' we don't even get double the nothingness. So what do we get? A taut, well-written, evocative, erotic, snapshot of a brief moment in time. Like the photographs which accompany the novella, the text itself - the story - is one frame abstracted from a complete roll. Where the rest of that roll is, who knows? That isn't important. Houellebecq speaks ... Read More: Rating: - Don’t let this be your introduction to HouellebecqHouellebecq lets himself down with Lanzarote. Unlike his most recent full length novels – Atomised and Platform – this novella is not book of ideas. Once again his fascination with tourism as a means by which society might attempt to live out its fantasies is present. Yet here Houellebecq fails to take this idea forward and illuminate society’s darker side and fault lines. Lanzarote might be the holiday Platform’s narrator took before going on that novel’s journey. The view of the world is the same, but here it is more crudely articulated; as if it has yet to be thought through or intellectualised. Consequently, one feels less sympathetic towards the project. For example, while the sex scenes are not as explicit as those in ... Read More: |
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