Rating: 
Summary: truly amazing
Review: Atomised poked at me and I had to finish it in one night. The attacks on the 60's generation, youth culture, the state of modern day relationships, the effects of divorce, the effects of feminism, et cetera, enthralled me. Houellebecq points out our obsession with youth and tries to point out a history of where it started and how it was aggrandized through the latter part of the 20th century. I couldn't help but laugh the following day when I walked into a gym and saw all the middle aged men and women trying desperately to look 21 again. The attacks on individualism and materialism were a sad and entertaining read respectively. Its a harsh look at modern society, and although written for France, I feel that the ideas about the present situation apply to the US also. Divorced parents who look at their children as a burden or reminder that they are growing older exist in the states as well as france. Not everything in the book is magnificent, as I found most of the sex scenes a tad mechanical and the charcter Christiane seemed weak. I give it 5 stars because I cannot stop thinking about the issues brought up in the book, and I am sure that I will read it over and over to get a better grasp on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Naught provoking
Review: A so-so read, but not as wacked or interesting as I had hoped. From all the humbug I thought this book might set my pants on fire, but instead it was rather blah. Consider checking it out at the library first.
Rating: 
Summary: dull as dishwater
Review: "Elementay Particles" contains traces of the spare, straight-forward perversion of Jerzy Kosinski's "Steps" and the philosophy and biochemistry element found in Kary Mullis' "Dancing Naked in the Mindfield". Both good books. However "Elementary Particles" kinda sucks, and maybe can only be compared to "Steppenwolf" for just being so tacky. There's poems in here about "hair on my knob" and tepid sex bits as ordinary as they are dirty. It suggests a sort of authors vanity and arrogance I hate, the type that thinks it can shock me so easily. That condescending feeling, whether real or imagined, bugs me terrifically. Also the characters in this story suffer greatly from life's boredom, and react to it usually boringly. I too can empathize with their boredom as I read all about it. The philosophising didn't make me think. The language was very dry. Of course, read it for yourself and see, I dunno, but I cannot recommend it. I will give it an extra star because I finished it. To me this book lacks significance, and might be altogether forgotten in 5 years, or so I hope.
Rating:
Summary: It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine).
Review: Well, not unequivocally fine. At first I wanted to launch this book across the room, like Camus chucked de Beaviour's "Second Sex," and dismiss it as rubbish. Then I wanted to proclaim it as a masterpiece, then chuck it, then laud it again. Like virtual particles adhering to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, so too were my emotions after absorbing this unbelievably sad existential tale. Borrowing heavily (probably a bit too heavily) from Camus, and totally ignoring the fact that two intellectual movements (structuralism and post-structuralism (maybe three:post-post-structuralism?)) have passed since existentialism gripped our world, Houllebecq writes eloquently about the individual's isolation, about mankind's miserable and perverted existence. Written with all the mysanthropy of a Gulliver tale, the author sees no escape for the individual except through death, no escape for mankind except extinction at the hands of an all female, genetically-enhanced, immortal, asexual, superspecies. As I said, he starts out basically replicating Camus's dismal take on mankind--the only difference being Houellebecq's baffling hang-up with basic sexuality. But I suppose that's the point. He's saying that in this day and age, after the sexual revolution, and the excessive permissiveness of the previous decades, sex is now no more than perversion for the sake of being perverse. Unlike the other reviewers who were offended by his supposed "right-wing attack on the left", I found it refreshing that he was rejecting "moral relativism" which personally I believe to be a negative force in society. His conclusion, though depressing and troubling, is logical. His style, at times profound, at other times fittingly textbook, was appropriate in its shifts and tones, but occasionally he could follow a strong passage with a jejune one. Example: "In cemetaries all across the world, the recently deceased continued to rot in their graves, slowly becoming skeletons"; followed by this goose egg, "All across the surface of the globe, a weary, exhausted humanity, filled with self-doubt and uncertain of its history, prepared itself as best it could to enter a new millennium." Despite this, the author ignites the readers sensibilities, and though the sex scenes could be a bit harsh and redundant, his point is driven home, with an ending borrowed from the radical feminist Valerie Solones: wipe out the men and we'll all be happy. To sum up: it's been done before, but never so cleverly. Houellebecq's probably never had coffee with Milan Kundera, but his ideas and style put him up among Kundera and the greats.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth staying with
Review: A grim novel, that in the end rewards you for staying with it. It is the story of two brothers, one a scientist who struggles with lack of joy and an absolute indifference to sex, and his brother who struggles with being an ugly outcast growing up. It is the story of figuring things out too late, and what one does with that knowledge. Both brothers have to come to grips with lifes early failures, and lack of meaning in their lives. One chooses suicide (I am giving nothing away here folks, he is dead in the introduction) and the other takes an even darker path. There are some truly horrific moments, I don't mean in the Hannibal, blood and guts sense of the word but in the everyday human cruelty sense. Almost every critical review of this announces Houllebecq as the heir apparent to Camus. Sorry folks, this is just not the case for several reasons. The biggest of these reasons is writing style, Camus is someone you can sit on a rainy day and shoot through 250 pages, (who among us has not killed a rainy Sunday reading The Stranger cover to cover) where Houellbecq's style is a bit of a chore. The other huge difference is Houellebecq's story ends with a bit of hope for the world, where Camus never gave us that. Also, it is unfair to compare a man on his second novel to one of the giants of the 20th Century. Read him on his own merits, cause it is a book worth reading. It has been a long time since I have read a new novel that did not remind me of another book, and that in itself makes it worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Needs elementary work
Review: This reads much better than Houellebecq's last effort, the floundering "Whatever," but "The Elementary Particles" suffers at the hands of its author's ego. Houellebecq meanders through his occasionally interesting plot line, diverting often to express whatever philosophical view happens to be bouncing around in his head. The result is sometimes thought-provoking, but it's often pointless and rarely as controversial as the author would like you to believe. A person can vomit on a busy street corner, and everybody will turn to look. But that doesn't make it art.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but essential
Review: Houellebecq asks whether happiness is possible for us The fact that he cops out with the easy answer -- namely, "no," -- is less important than that he draws attention to the question. Houellebecq puts sentiment above action. For Houellebecq we cannot be happy because we cannot love, and we cannot love because we -- for whom God is dead -- recognize that all objects of love are mortal and decaying. For love we substitute the cult of youth. One cannot properly call this cult narcissistic because, as Houellebecq demonstartes compellingly, even a youth who admires his own youth will eventually confront the deay of his body -- the picture of Dorain Gray for the survivors of the the 60's youth revolution and their aging children. But to pose the question of happiness properly one must start with insight that the fundamental form of love is not love of another but love for oneself, and that the happy man is the man who loves himself and his life becuase it is filled with lovely or admirable actions. The science-fiction aspects are tiresome and implausible. If happiness is impossible for man then man will cease to exist, and be replaced by something else. What sappy optimism!
Rating:
Summary: Can Man Be Overcome?
Review: Nietzsche said 'Man is something that should be overcome' and that "what is great about man is that he is a bridge and not a goal...". Although this was badly perverted in the 20th century, Nietzsche's intent was the proposition that man must evolve toward a more moral and rational existence if we are to survive. This new man would be one of moral strength not a physical dominant. Elementary Particles is a speculative history of future man. Houellebecq tells the story of a brilliant biologist, Michel Djerzinski, and his dysfunctional brother, Bruno Clement. Together they serve as bipolar nuclei that enwrap Houellebecq's contention that contemporary man and woman, biologically driven to reproduction and emotionally impaired, cannot continue to thrive without change. We principally follow Djerzinski through his work and personal lives, and the observations of his brother; each in their own way assisting Djerzinski to his final conclusions. The novel has been criticized as racist, sexist, and misogynistic. While it does contain references and episodes that are base, it can be argued that in order for the conclusion to work, these failings and frailties must be fleshed out. It is unfortunate that they almost undo the novel for they seem to metastasize it into an erotic thriller. The final chapters, however, save the work completely. From the media it seems that the answers to the questions of man's next step are divided. While the Europeans are purposing a biologic solution, the Asians and North Americans seem to support one that involves a cybernetic component. Science rarely admits any but its own into discussions of research and its moral implications, therefore we must often puzzle these questions at a distance. Elementary Particles is an excellent novel that intelligently explores the question of our future.
Rating:
Summary: Warped and Perverse World
Review: Houellebecq has created a novel that is both deeply disturbing and impossible to put down. It is at the midpoint between a novel and a philosphical treatise. While the plots that unfold throughout the course of the book are not overly compelling, the character studies more than compensate for this. Houellebecq has written a book at the end of this century that bears strong parallels to the writings of an author at the beginning-Celine. There are frequent references to Celine throughout the book and it is helpful to the reader to be familiar with Celine's writings. Clearly, while influenced by Celine, Sartre and Camus, Houellebecq offers the reader much more than simply rehashing their writings and searches, with some success, to find meaning in utter depravity. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Still debating if it's a wonder or worthless
Review: Kafka argued that books where not good or bad; if when you finished it something in your life changed or at least it permit you to ellaborate an idea, then the book had sense. This is the impression i got with TEP: i still do not know if it's a cross between a scientific roller coastar and Hustler, or just bright ideas decorated and wrapped differently. Many reviews emphasized on the sexual portions of the book: they are only fireworks. The beauty (and the problem) comes when Michel's discoveries are analised coldly: We do not need sex for joy or reproduction? We do not fully grasp the concept of religions? we still mix the act of thinking with the object of our thinking? Those thoughts are at least perturbing, and there we find the wonder of this book: it permits you to think and ellaborate your own thoughts. Skip the sex parts: take the courage to enroll in ths intelectual tour and focus on the new way of thinking and you'll find its greatness. Concentrate on the "moral decay of western civilisation", on the gangbangs and the liberalised atmosphere and you'll have just a professional provocateur
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