Submission

Submission by Michel Houellebecq, 246 pages

It's 2022 and Francois is a 44-year-old academic who is, as he says, "about as political as a towel." His world revolves around 19th-century French novelist J.K. Huysmans, young coeds, and drinking vast amounts of wine. But while he's concentrating on these obsessions, a national election puts the Islamic party into national power, throwing France--and Francois--for a loop. Soon he's out of a job (since only Muslims can teach under the new regime) and becoming increasingly isolated and impotent (the modest dress imposed on French women certainly isn't helping in that regard). Should he throw aside all that he believes to convert and thus become employable? Or should he just drink himself to death? These seem to be his only choices.

I'll admit that I don't know a lot about French history or literature, and so felt a bit in-over-my-head in some of the discussions on those topics. However, Houellebecq presents an innately readable satire in his tale of a self-absorbed academic who is forced to consider politics on a personal level for possibly the first time in his life. Well worth a read.