Submission: A Novel

Not a book on the rise of Islam, but a book on the failure of Europe

This is not Houellebecq's best work, but it is worthwhile. The novel has been portrayed as a controversial look at the rise of political Islam in France. Unfortunately, I find this description misleading. While Islam, in the form of a French based Muslim Brotherhood, is an important theme, it plays more of a passive role in the novel. The rise of the Brotherhood and the changes that occur to the French Republic are described in a matter of fact way. The real story of the novel is the clash between Everyman and the Western political elites that have failed to effectively promote the march of liberalism and secular humanism. Houellebecq describes a world adrift, lacking motivation and metaphysics. Additionally, he holds his greatest contempt for the Leftist intellectuals and mainstream political elites who are more than willing to throw their hat with the Brotherhood rather than permit the Far Right to hold any semblance of democratic legitimacy. The Left destroys humanism through having multiculturalism devour itself. Meanwhile, the Right eventually will find itself at home in an mildly Islamist country (less sexual society, return to family values, less drinking!). This is a description of a society that is split between apahty and desperation. Secular humanism fails to provide metaphysics. The promise of European liberalism died in the trenches of World War I and has been usurped by two forces: American consumerism and Islamism. His points show that it's hard for a society to get excited about mediocre politics, commerce and sexual liberation. Islamism represents a return to orthodoxy that Europe has been missing since the fall of medieval Christianity. Mainstream politics keeps liberalism on life support, masking the world as a struggle between communism and social democracy. However, both systems rely on statism and the erosion of the nuclear family and the Church. In the end, the masses realize there is little tangible difference in what is being offered by t...