“Houellebecq is not our cup of tea”. The phrase often comes up in the mouths of bookstores in Toulouse. Not that the man or his work particularly displeases them. They clearly admit, on the other hand, that they do not like the “media fuss” around a single book, “Annihilate”, in this January start-up, and the fact that the publisher, Flammarion, did not send them any information. ‘copy before publication, which is the tradition, so that they can get an idea … and possibly recommend it to their customers. All, however, with the exception of the Renaissance bookstore, which “has not ordered a single copy and has no intention of doing so”, expect to do good business with a Roman promise to a great success.
At Privat, around 300 Houellebecq must be delivered for a gradual implementation, from Friday. However, there is no question of “destroying” competition “with a wall of books”, insists Marie. “Like all headliners, the book will be clearly visible in the window and in the box office, alongside the works of Karine Tuil and David Foenkinos, this week, or Pierre Lemaitre (January 25). But in the section dedicated to literature, we have no room to multiply the piles. The most difficult, in January, is to make room for new things. And there are a lot of them this year. “
At L’Autre Rive, Saint-Cyprien district, Céline has ordered around forty copies of the Houellebecq, some of which have already been reserved by far-sighted customers.

“There are so many other books to defend”

“We will have two on the table that we will renew as we go along,” explains the bookseller. There is already enough communication around Annihilation, no need to add more. We prefer to defend novels that we have been able to read and love such as The Lake of Nowhere, by Pete Fromm or accompany the first steps of Emmanuelle Fournier-Lorentz, who, in Villa Royale tells an extraordinary family story of which I I appreciated the quality of the writing. “
At the Preface of Colomiers, who ordered 50 copies, booksellers will be a little more generous, question put in place, and are considering “a double stack, as is done for authors of the caliber of Ken Follett or Guillaume Musso”. But with, again, a reflection that keeps coming back: “At the beginning of January, there are so many other novelties that we want to highlight”.

Deprived of sex because of the Pink City

Presented in a hardback cover, “Annihilate” is a solid novel of over 700 pages made up of short chapters. Michel Houllebecq tells the rather dull life of Paul Raison, particular advisor to a Minister of Economy, Finance and Budget vintage 2027 confronted with nightmarish viral videos including a guillotined staging. Paul Raison is also worrying about the stroke that his father has just suffered, who was a spawn of Intelligence, then by cancer which is gradually destroying his own health … Against this very dark background, Houellebecq remains an acute observer of the contemporary world , alternating sociological and political notations; intellectual and popular references; mystical outbursts and trivial projections. We thus go from Spinoza to Hanouna, from Gregorian chants to Kurt Cobain, from the place of prayer to the impulses of the body. In this last register, Toulouse occupies an unexpected place when our hero with the sad face and the penis at half mast evokes Catherine, a Buddhist girlfriend of his youth, “rather cute, with easy and cheerful character, who loved to kiss”. And Houllebecq, who never neglects any detail when he talks about sex, to specify: “She knew how to contract her conversation, which is called yoni in her religion, and which had an unusual sweet taste. This was brief because the young lady left him to “continue her studies at the Toulouse school”. Pure Houellebecq which, as smart as a monkey, always knows how to sting the reader to the quick to revive his interest.

“To annihilate” (Flammarion, 734 pages, 26 euros).