The Map and the Territory (Vintage International)

I forget where I heard about Michel Houellebecq… It was on some literary site, most likely the late Prufrock site. Michel Houellebecq is one of the premier living authors in France. I vaguely remember reading something about Michel Houellebecq’s ‘fearlessness’ when it comes to his writing. That appealed to me, for as you know, here in America we are currently going through what I hope is temporary insanity. More and more Americans are becoming ‘woke,’ that is to say, converts to a bizarre new religion that requires for entre nothing more than a hyper sense of fragility and a 24/7 search for anything that could be interpreted as insult, which in most cases, is then inflated to not just insult, but racism or some other ‘ism.’Well, this novel was not that. Instead, it was a brilliant telling of an artist’s life, centering on his brief love affair with a beautiful Russian woman and another brief friendship with an author named Michel Houellebecq. That is not a mistake. In Michel Houellebecq’s novel, The Map and the Territory, the lead character, Jed Martin forms a friendship about mid-point of the novel with a reclusive author named Michel Houellebecq.What I loved about the book was the wit and intelligence of the author as he takes us down through the page and the words into the mind of Jed Martin and the other main characters. And I am not limiting this to ‘characterization’ and plot, but also Michel Houellebecq takes us by the hand and shows us the mind and heart and soul of modern France. Although I have been there three or four times, I was eyes-wide-open because it is so different from America. And before I had even heard of this novel, I detected a decline in France and its premier city, Paris, especially when I compare my last visit with my first. On my last visit I was struck by what I will call the ‘veneer’ of Paris, a façade that is maintained for the sake of tourists, as tourism now makes up a large percentage of France’s economy. I believe the same thing applies to other major tourist sites in Europe-- London, Amsterdam, and Madrid. But on that last Paris visit, I was struck by the decay in that façade, notably the homeless and the presence of trash in the streets.Jed Martin, leads an almost hermetic life, devoted to his art. He has no close friends or family members, only his father who is dying of cancer. Michel Houellebecq adds some wonderful touches or the shops and quicky marts, the food, the wine, and glimpses of the real France, the ‘now’ France. Perhaps midpoint in the novel, Jed Martin is scheduled to do his first ‘showing’ and he recruits another reclusive artist, author Michel Houellebecq, to write the ‘blurbs’ for each of his paintings. Over time and only two meetings, the two men draw close and gain respect for each other. But, given their similar personalities, are too slow to connect. And then fate strikes.I will give nothing else away. There are some dark things in the story, but they are not fetishized or overdone. One of the things that struck me… as a lapsed Catholic and a revived Christian (not a real good one, but an aspiring one), was the revelation of how God-less France and the French people have become. When I say ‘God-less,’ I am not saying that God is not present in France, but rather that France has written Him out of their lives. Of course, there are French Christians who love God, but they seem to be, at least in this author’s brilliant novel, a dying breed. And as an American, I think we have been on the same path, but many Americans seem to be awakening to God.The Map and the Territory is a (as my mentor, Jim Frey, would say) Damn Good Novel. I am now looking forward to my next Michel Houellebecq novel.

Just my two cents:To me this marvelously creative book is an existentialist statement that human life inherently has no purpose, and thus no, or not much, meaning. It's entertaining but I am too old, and have already thought far too much about this issue, to learn any more from a novel. My first insight into "what is the meaning of life?" was "Just live it!" That took a lot of pressure off. Now Houellebecq tells the reader that "living it" is a waste of time and effort. Love means nothing, passion is fun but means nothing, success may happen, it's OK but it too means nothing, being really rich neither helps nor hinders the achievement of happiness -- indeed, happiness itself means nothing.All this nothingness, this denial of the worth of human feeling or even its existence, is presented in an extremely clever, sometimes delightful way. The Prix Goncourt was created for this novel; only a French person could have written it and, maybe, only a French intellectual can really appreciate it. Read it if you will, enjoy it if you can (it's not hard to do that), and remember that it's nothing.

French writer Michel Houellebecq "born Michel Thomas; 26 February 1956), is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker, magician and poet" ([...]). His fifth novel, The Map and the Territory (2010, translated into English in 2011 by Gavin Bowd) is a fascinating examination of an artist's life--indeed, the lives of a number of artists. Foremost among them is Jed Martin who finds himself first having success as a photographer (of maps of all things) and then returning to his original love, painting in oils. He adopts a "classic" style in which "beauty is secondary." Although he struggles with why "he had turned to painting, which still, several years later, posed insurmountable technical problems," Jed pretty much concludes that painting chose him. This is a common theme that runs throughout The Map and the Territory with other artists becoming submissive to their work. It is true of Jed's father, now an elderly and ailing man, who happens upon a totally different and yet distinct form of art, architecture, and as it is with a Russian woman, Olga Sheremoyova with whom Jed falls in love. Olga begins as a public relations director but by happenstance finds success in a different world--that of a Director of Programs for a TV channel--still another form of art.Certainly, one of Houellebecq's many unusual twists in the novel is to examine the life of writer Michel Houellebecq--including himself among the cast of characters in the novel. Houellebecq describes Houellebecq as looking "like a sick old turtle" and that it is "public knowledge that Houellebecq was a loner with strong misanthropic tendencies." In the novel Houellebecq explains to Jed that it is "impossible to write a novel... for the same reason that it's impossible to live: due to accumulated inertia. And all the theories of freedom, from Gide to Sarte, are just immoralisms thought up by irresponsible bachelors."Although filled with remarkable insight about art and human creativity, The Map and the Territory is equally concerned with human relationships which the omniscient narrator states "don't really amount to much." Houellebecq creates a vivid portrayal of father and son in the novel as Jed visits his near-to-death father in a nursing home, where the old man is waiting for "liberation." Houellebecq also provides flashbacks to the pair's earlier lives together. Jed's relationship with Olga is equally unique since Jed has few friends and "had a few love affairs, none of which lasted long." Just as romance between the two begins to spark, the "indecisive" Jed allows her to leave to go to return to Russia. Jed is equally drawn, but not romantically, to the writer Michel Houellebecq whose eyes hold "an intense look... a passionate look" and Jed is amazed to find himself feeling a friendship with the man.About half-way through The Map and the Territory Houellebecq throws the reader for a loop and the novel becomes a thriller with the gruesome beheading and skinning of one of the major characters "carried out with professional surgical tools." The character murdered "had lots of enemies... [and] people had shown themselves to be unjustly aggressive and cruel toward him." At first, the crime element that Houellebecq introduces into the novel appears to be a strange juxtaposition to the earlier portions of the novel, but it also matches the author's nihilistic philosophy toward life. The murder plot also allows Houellebecq to introduce still another riveting character: Inspector Jasselin who, at the crime scene feels "less disgust than a general pity for the entire earth, for mankind, which can, in its heart, give birth to such horrors." As with the other characters in the novel, Jasselin is meticulously portrayed.While chronicling the murder investigation by Jasselin, Houellebecq continues to follow the events and feelings of his remaining characters. Interestingly, like Bret Easton Ellis or Stephen King, Houellebecq often includes details about popular products. More importantly, however, the novel is permeated with reflections on aging, death, and dying; religion; violence; perversity; the loss of family; and the idea that regardless of the people in one's life, one remains alone having had life thrust upon them whether they want it or not. Hardly cheery subject matter, but nonetheless mesmerizing.The solution to the murder in The Map and the Territory as well as the conclusion of the novel and the fate of its main character, Jed Martin, are all consistent and clearly representative of the author's unique vision of his universe which, along with Houellebecq's singular philosophy and skill as a writer makes the novel a captivating reading experience.