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Still dividing the critics: Houellebecq’s “Serotonin”

After instantly becoming (another) best-seller in his native France upon release in January, novelist Michel Houellebecq's "Serotonin" was finally published in English this September - and he's proved as divisive and controversial as ever.

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Photo courtesy of Penguin Random House UK.

After instantly becoming (another) best-seller in his native France upon release in January, novelist Michel Houellebecq’s Serotonin was finally published in English this September (U.K.) – and he’s proved as divisive and controversial as ever. Reviews like The Guardian‘s Johanna Thomas-Corr quickly jumped to call out the notoriously dark and gory author by referring to Serotonin as “banal and predictable”, hinting at the continuation of some characteristically Houellebecq themes like a ‘golden age’ masculinity jeopardized by modern-day feminism, perverse sexual desires and global economic trends. Yet, other reviews like The Atlantic’s Rachel Donadio view Houellebecq’s, frankly freaky, visionary quality (he wrote Serotonin‘s plot containing hopeless, disaffected farmers shortly before the outset of the ‘yellow vest’ movement) as one of his most remarkable features, indirectly hinting whether some degree of outrageousness is needed to get to the truth.

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