SOURCE: Leichter, Frédérique. Review of Les Particules élémentaires, by Michel Houellebecq. World Literature Today 73, no. 3 (summer 1999): 492.

In the following review, Leichter praises Houellebecq's provocative depiction of contemporary alienation and sterility in Les Particules élémentaires.

Les Particules élémentaires, the second novel by Michel Houellebecq, who stepped into the limelight in 1994 with Extension du domaine de la lutte, was the focus of much attention within Parisian literary circles last fall. Despite attacks by the media, it must be admitted that this is an original and profoundly disturbing novel whose ambition, declared almost defiantly, is to be “the chronicle of the metaphysical mutation of our occidental civilization at the dawn of the new millennium.” For the author, the feelings, thoughts, and obsessions described in the book are all symptoms of “l'air du temps.” In this way, Les Particules élémentaires defends itself from any criticism with...