SOURCE: Besser, Gretchen Rous. Review of Plateforme, by Michel Houellebecq. French Review 76, no. 3 (February 2003): 640-41.

In the following review, Besser praises Houellebecq's provocative depiction of cynicism and amorality in Plateforme.

Our favorite iconoclast—the one we love to hate—is back with another pageturner that we can neither admit to savoring nor put down. Not as apocalyptic as his previous Particules élémentaires (FR 73.4, 763-64), Houellebecq's “novel” [Plateforme] is nonetheless provocative to an expected degree. The premise that Western civilization is corrupt, egocentric, and doomed is complemented by an apologetic for instituting sex-for-barter with developing countries. The author's cynical world view comes across most potently in the attitude and actions of his porte-parole narrator Michel, whose outlook is summed up in a simple philosophy: “S'il n'y avait pas, de temps à autre, un peu de sexe, en quoi consisterait la vie?” (220-21). Michel voices (the author's?) jaded and subversive...