The Modern Novel

Biography

Michel Houellebecq is best known for being controversial, something he seems to court, whether it is bashing Islam or bashing pretty well everything France has stood for since World War II. But, hey, controversy sells and Houellebecq sells in France and elsewhere. He was born Michel Thomas in 1958 on the island of La Réunion. His father was a mountain guide, his mother an anesthetist. Like Michel and Bruno, in Les particules élémentaires (UK: Atomised; US: The Elementary Particles), his parents had little interest in him and he lived with his paternal grandmother. He qualified as an agronomist, got married and then divorced. He got depressed and was treated for it. He started writing early on, his first book being about the American writer, H P Lovecraft. He published poems, stories and novels but it was only with the publication of Les particules élémentaires (UK: Atomised; US: The Elementary Particles), a critique of post-war France, that has had considerable success. He now lives in Cork in Ireland with his second wife.

Other sites

Michel Houellebecq (official site in English)
Michel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq
On Michel Houellebecq
Calling Islam stupid lands author in court
The Sexual Political Economy of Postmodernity (An Introduction to Critical Theory in the Works of Michel Houellebecq)
Donald Trump Is a Good President (article by Houellebecq)
Interview
Interview
Interview with his mother
Michel Houellebecq (official site – in French)
Michel Houellebecq (in French)
Michel Houellebecq (in French)
Le roman, le rien, à propos de Michel Houellebecq et du nihilisme (in French)
La mère de Houellebecq contre-attaque (in French)