Irritating & meandering beginning quickly lost my interest in this one. Unfinished as not one for me.

I came to this book for the social commentary but left it more impressed by the lucid, sardonic depiction of male, middle aged ennui. Very entertaining but I may have got more out of it if I had more knowledge of 19th century French literature. ( )

Plot holes and no belly dancers.

So, I finally ended up reading "Submission" in 2022. In the novel, France's newly elected head of state in fictional 2022 is *dramatic sound effect* a Muslim. I know, shocking, right?
All jokes aside, I remember back in 2015 the novel's release was making waves in the media and it might very well have been my first introduction to the author Houellebecq. After finishing the book, I revisited some of the reviews and articles that were published back in the day. Many of those quite blatantly misrepresented the novel's content, I guess in order to stir up some controversy.
Yes, the Islam that is pictured in the novel is a very superficial caricature: it's just polygamy, halal food and hijabs. Also, the title "Submission" insinuates a swift and forceful coup which brings a Muslim (and therefore, by implication "thee Muslims") into power. That however, is not what's happening in the story (the term "submission" is directed at *Houellebecq alert* the submission of women) and it leads me directly to the novel's first plot hole.
Houellebecq's setup is as follows: France's socialists want to avoid a presidency of the Front National by teaming up with the French Muslim Brotherhood. So far so good. Now, the far-right Identitarian Movement has correctly and secretly assessed the situation, anticipates a "Muslim victory" in the elections and decides to quietly convert to Islam instead of publishing their findings and using it to aid the right wing in the elections. Is that a likely scenario? No. Well it's fiction, anything goes.

Moving on to plot hole No. 2: the novel's protagonist Francois is a notorious horndog looking for love and (even moreso) sexual gratification. He notices the polygamy implemented by the new regime time and time again, but is only then convinced to convert to Islam, when he is given a lecture on how Islam is the superior version of monotheism. The guy's main concern was his root chacra, and then all of a sudden he is all crown chacra? I don't buy it.

Plot hole No. 3: as soon as the new government is in power all turmoil ends. Everyone quietly accepts the new polygamous practice and arranged marriages. At the same time, the government is not a totalitarian tyranny and is even pro European Union. I would have expected some more resistance, especially given that prior in the novel, there's a whole lotta civil unrest. Women, where are ya? Rise up! Or don't... it's a Houellebecq world after all.

Plot hole No. 4: there are no belly dancers. I repeat: NO BELLY DANCERS! Come on Houellebecq, you're cooking up this farcical testoserone-driven version of an Islamic France and forget belly dancers? What a missed oportunity.

What's good about the novel?

In the first half, there is a lot of foreboding; a suspenseful, looming atmosphere of what's to come. I enjoyed that.

Also, a sub-plot is the protagonist's professional and personal preoccupation with French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans. Houellebecq skillfully interlocked passages on his work and biography with the main events in the novel.

Overall, the novel is not without flaw in my humble opinion. Although, Houellebcq correctly predicted Le Pen's candidacy in the 2022 presidential elections. He did not predict Macron, though.

PS: the Houellebecq-Lolita of this novel is less believable than the one in "The Possibility of an Island". ( )

Dark, satirical, thought-provoking. Great! ( )

Francois is a literary intellectual in near-future France, living out the typically atomized, hedonistic, and despairing existence of the modern secular man.

Blinkered to the realities of politics and religion for most of his life due to a simple lack of interest, both begin to demand his attention by way of sweeping social and political change in the country, particularly in the form of an ascendant Islamic party and presidential candidate. Academic acquaintances clue him in to the historical and political significance of the events unfolding around him.

The era of dominant liberal politics is coming to an end in France as the traditional liberal-left and liberal-right fade away, and a nativist right and Islamist right become the dominant players. This is explained as being the obvious consequence of secularism, which, lacking a potent vision of reality that can inspire men, is impotent to compel them to reproduce. The future will belong, inevitably, to the religionists.

Francois' academic muse is Huysman, a 19th century author who eventually converted to Catholicism and joined a monastery. Francois loves the man, but finds himself incapable of sympathizing with his religious devotion or his opposition to carnal indulgence, which is pretty much the only thing that keeps Francois from suicide.

The novel does an excellent job of capturing a France haunted by a Christian past, wandering lost in a secular present, and bending in submission to an Islamic future. While I'm typically wary of anything that might be classified 'ideological fiction', Submission manages to be an exhilarating read, despite -- or perhaps because of -- the prominence of its 'ideas'.

This is partly because the ideas it presents -- traditional morality and patriarchy as central to human well-being and a flourishing civilization, for instance -- are so far outside contemporary mainstream discourse, so inimical to it, that hearing them respectfully, even persuasively, presented in novel form is exciting.

As France is becoming a frontier of Islam's current civilizational clash with the west in the west, Submission provides a vital picture of what lies beneath the surface of these events. In embracing secular, atheistic materialism, Europe has committed cultural suicide. The question is now only "what will fill the void?" ( )