Contemporary literature

Ingredients: a middle-aged protagonist plagued by depression, a few sociological reflections, a handful of anatomical descriptions, several erotic passages, a dash of cynicism and humour. Freely mix these elements in a novel of about three hundred pages.

This recipe, applied in Whatever (1994) and perfected through Atomised (1998) won Michel Houellebecq worldwide commercial success and critical acclaim (he is by far the best known French author of our time), then the recognition of the critic and the obtaining of the Goncourt prize for The Map and the territory in 2010.

Serotonin, his seventh novel published in 2019 in France, once more combines the components which have come to characterise his style. It is a story of Florent-Claude, a depressed forty-something man who finds himself in a sentimental and professional dead end.  Just like in his previous novels, Houellebecq wants to be a writer-sociologist who aims to paint the picture of his epoch. Moreover his new text fetishises the body theme: the representation of physical appearance is very precise (p. 120*); the body is often reduced metonymically to an organ capable or not of satisfying libidinal needs (p. 133), the idea of aging as a kind of sexual devaluation is also very present (Ibid.).  

Author-pornographer, Houellebecq once again uses crude descriptions of sexual acts. As usual, he does not lack wit and his text makes us laugh as much as it moves us. Although Houellebecq uses a safe recipe, worked out to perfection, "Serotonin" turns out to be a mediocre product, unable to satisfy the tasters' expectations. Its ingredients seem to be of lower quality, and the master himself gives the impression of having lost a bit of his ‘culinary’ expertise.  

We are, for example, disconcerted by certain narratological solutions. Thus, when the main character Florent-Claude decides to leave his Japanese partner, he chooses to terminate his lease, resigns from his post at the Ministry of Agriculture and disappears for several months, hoping that this would encourage his girlfriend, unable to afford decent accommodation in Paris, to return to Japan. One wonders why so many detours and how a depressed, mentally exhausted man could have taken so many steps, being at the same time incapable of facing his girlfriend. This remarkable ploy is certainly of an astonishing originality but seems rather implausible.

We sometimes have the feeling that Houellebecq tries at all costs to dramatise his intrigue which, contrary to his intentions, makes his work haphazard and naive. I had this impression when I read among others the passage describing the protest by Norman farmers, which ended with the suicide of Aymeric, a close friend of the protagonist. I found this episode – surely aimed at highlighting the desperation of French farmers hopeless in the face of globalisation - mawkish and useless for the course of the action.

Furthermore, Serotonin contains too many fragments based on coincidence. Apart from a cameraman from a mainstream news channel, Florent-Claude is the only eyewitness to the last minutes of the life of his friend, because the police happen not to notice his presence (p. 260). The main character can confirm his doubts about a holidaymaker's paedophile tendencies, because the latter has accidentally forgotten to lock his door; he also succeeds in connecting to the paedophile’s computer because no password is accidentally required (pp. 214-218). Florent-Claude almost succeeds in shooting the son of his ex-partner, because, by chance, she lives in a completely isolated house opposite a restaurant, abandoned in winter, whose bay window overlooks the terrace of the woman's home (pp. 302-304). These astonishingly good conditions for eliminating an undesirable being are all the more ideal since the babysitter, instead of looking after the boy, prefers to spend her time on the first floor with headphones on her ears.

We are also disappointed by the use of social motives, the intense aroma of which previously made Houellebecq’s work a very recognizable dish. The French author, whose sociological acuity has led many readers and critics to believe that he is gifted with a sixth sense, that he has the faculty of prophetism, contents himself, this time, with repeating ideas expressed many times in his previous novels – the decline of sexuality in the Western World (p. 329), prostitution as a noble profession essential for the proper functioning of any society (p. 318), the division of individuals into classes according to their appearance ("aristocracy of beauty”) and, as a result, their value on the corporeal market (p. 323) - to the point that one has the impression of reading fragments of Platform or Whatever.  The main problem tackled in Serotonin, the collapse of French agriculture, turns out to be tasteless, unable to touch the reader, to provoke reflections.

We are also distraught by the sexual theme. Sometimes compared with Sade, Houellebecq acquired his fame thanks to daring scenes, often considered as pornographic or indecent.  The novelist not only still wants to be as provocative, but he tries to surpass himself, to raise the bar even higher. Since we are used to the boldness of his descriptions and the author cannot shock us as easily, he resorts to taboo subjects, such as zoophilia (p. 54) and paedophilia (p. 156), which, alas, leaves a bitter taste which is difficult to get rid of. 

However, it would be unfair to call Serotonin an entirely failed novel. The new text by Houellebecq is a fine reflection on the life of Western people who, despite economic prosperity, technical and scientific progress, the growing tendency for individualism, to the constant devaluation of relationships with others, remain vulnerable beings unable to live without a touch of affection in their lives. Serotonin is indeed a hymn to love, the only feeling that can save us. To renounce it is to condemn oneself to a slow, painful and inevitable death.

It remains only to hope that Houellebecq will be able to reinvent himself in his next book, that he will again become the cook whose skills and original recipes have won over the palate of the most fastidious critics and readers around the world.

*The page numbers refer to the original version of the novel: M. Houellebecq, Sérotonine, Flammarion, 2019.