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Michel Houellebecq
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The Map and the Territory Paperback – 1 June 2012

by Michel Houellebecq (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 822
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Part thriller, part satire, the critically acclaimed latest novel by the winner of the Prix Goncourt is quintessential Houellebecq and perhaps his best yet.

Artist Jed Martin emerges from a ten-year hiatus with good news. It has nothing to do with his broken boiler, the approach of another lamentably awkward Christmas dinner with his father or the memory of his doomed love affair with the beautiful Olga. It is that, for his new exhibition, he has secured the involvement of none other than celebrated novelist Michel Houellebecq.

The exhibition brings Jed new levels of global fame. But, his boiler is still broken, his ailing father flirts with oblivion and, worst of all, he is contacted by an inspector requiring his help in solving an unspeakable, atrocious and gruesome crime, involving none other than celebrated novelist Michel Houellebecq...

Shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2013.
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET
  4. Publication date
    1 June 2012
  5. Dimensions
    12.9 x 1.8 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    9780099554578
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0099554578
  8. See all details
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Review

A delicious exercise in satire and self-parody... His best ever ― Daily Telegraph

The outlaw of French letters returns with an acerbic riff on art and celebrity... witty, wildly erudite ― The Times

A dark master of invention... From the very first paragraph of this brilliant novel, the reader can be in no doubt that they're in the blisteringly bleak, darkly inventive grand massif that is Houellebeqc land ― Evening Standard

This book, so beautifully written, so inspiriting for all its pessimism, is the new novel I have loved best this year. We have not his equal -- David Sexton ― Spectator

Impressive... Beguiling... He is a true original ― Observer

Book Description

Part thriller, part satire, Houellebecq's prize winning and critically acclaimed new novel will be a publishing sensation

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0099554577
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET; 1st edition (1 June 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780099554578
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099554578
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 1.8 x 19.8 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 822

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Michel Houellebecq

Michel Houellebecq

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4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
822 global ratings

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Razvan Ion
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional book
Reviewed in Germany on 27 May 2023
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Exceptional book
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Armand Jarri
2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre in every aspect
Reviewed in Spain on 14 October 2021
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Why should anyone give this book more than two stars? it is mediocre in very aspect. The plot is boring. The characters dull and underdeveloped. The style (and translation) is clunky and lame.
Really bad.
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lucien c
3.0 out of 5 stars um tanto decepcionante
Reviewed in Brazil on 10 June 2017
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O nome de Houellebecq é sem dúvida muito prestigioso, daí terem sido grandes as minhas expectativas para a leitura desse título. Reconhecendo embora qualidades no texto e certa originalidade em alguns momentos, no conjunto reputo a obra como decepcionante.
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SoMisguided.com
5.0 out of 5 stars Holy Heck Houellebecq
Reviewed in Canada on 27 May 2014
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Epic. The literary fortitude of this novel is daunting yet I found it a great compelling read. Quirky insights into the high-end art world and the low-down on lowly artists.
2 people found this helpful
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Eclectic Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars "The Triumph of Vegetation Is Total"
Reviewed in the United States on 18 January 2014
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French writer Michel Houellebecq "born Michel Thomas; 26 February 1956), is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker, magician and poet" ([...]). His fifth novel, The Map and the Territory (2010, translated into English in 2011 by Gavin Bowd) is a fascinating examination of an artist's life--indeed, the lives of a number of artists. Foremost among them is Jed Martin who finds himself first having success as a photographer (of maps of all things) and then returning to his original love, painting in oils. He adopts a "classic" style in which "beauty is secondary." Although he struggles with why "he had turned to painting, which still, several years later, posed insurmountable technical problems," Jed pretty much concludes that painting chose him. This is a common theme that runs throughout The Map and the Territory with other artists becoming submissive to their work. It is true of Jed's father, now an elderly and ailing man, who happens upon a totally different and yet distinct form of art, architecture, and as it is with a Russian woman, Olga Sheremoyova with whom Jed falls in love. Olga begins as a public relations director but by happenstance finds success in a different world--that of a Director of Programs for a TV channel--still another form of art.

Certainly, one of Houellebecq's many unusual twists in the novel is to examine the life of writer Michel Houellebecq--including himself among the cast of characters in the novel. Houellebecq describes Houellebecq as looking "like a sick old turtle" and that it is "public knowledge that Houellebecq was a loner with strong misanthropic tendencies." In the novel Houellebecq explains to Jed that it is "impossible to write a novel... for the same reason that it's impossible to live: due to accumulated inertia. And all the theories of freedom, from Gide to Sarte, are just immoralisms thought up by irresponsible bachelors."

Although filled with remarkable insight about art and human creativity, The Map and the Territory is equally concerned with human relationships which the omniscient narrator states "don't really amount to much." Houellebecq creates a vivid portrayal of father and son in the novel as Jed visits his near-to-death father in a nursing home, where the old man is waiting for "liberation." Houellebecq also provides flashbacks to the pair's earlier lives together. Jed's relationship with Olga is equally unique since Jed has few friends and "had a few love affairs, none of which lasted long." Just as romance between the two begins to spark, the "indecisive" Jed allows her to leave to go to return to Russia. Jed is equally drawn, but not romantically, to the writer Michel Houellebecq whose eyes hold "an intense look... a passionate look" and Jed is amazed to find himself feeling a friendship with the man.

About half-way through The Map and the Territory Houellebecq throws the reader for a loop and the novel becomes a thriller with the gruesome beheading and skinning of one of the major characters "carried out with professional surgical tools." The character murdered "had lots of enemies... [and] people had shown themselves to be unjustly aggressive and cruel toward him." At first, the crime element that Houellebecq introduces into the novel appears to be a strange juxtaposition to the earlier portions of the novel, but it also matches the author's nihilistic philosophy toward life. The murder plot also allows Houellebecq to introduce still another riveting character: Inspector Jasselin who, at the crime scene feels "less disgust than a general pity for the entire earth, for mankind, which can, in its heart, give birth to such horrors." As with the other characters in the novel, Jasselin is meticulously portrayed.

While chronicling the murder investigation by Jasselin, Houellebecq continues to follow the events and feelings of his remaining characters. Interestingly, like Bret Easton Ellis or Stephen King, Houellebecq often includes details about popular products. More importantly, however, the novel is permeated with reflections on aging, death, and dying; religion; violence; perversity; the loss of family; and the idea that regardless of the people in one's life, one remains alone having had life thrust upon them whether they want it or not. Hardly cheery subject matter, but nonetheless mesmerizing.

The solution to the murder in The Map and the Territory as well as the conclusion of the novel and the fate of its main character, Jed Martin, are all consistent and clearly representative of the author's unique vision of his universe which, along with Houellebecq's singular philosophy and skill as a writer makes the novel a captivating reading experience.
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