Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Trying out Embedding a Goodreads Book Review

H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houellebecq

My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
If you love Michel Houellebecq you'll find this fascinating. Howard Phillips Lovecraft is an underrated tale teller and misanthrope with an amazing imagination, the influence of which can be felt in Houellebecq's works especially the last, The Possibility of an Island. And even tho, at times, Houellebecq gets as close to a hagiography as one can with a sexless racist, his explanation of Lovecraft's life and works is a captivating read due in no small part to the quality of Houellebecq's writing.



Lovecraft's "great works" included in this volume might leave you a little colder, however. I found The Call of Cthulhu verging on the unbearable and had to gallop through it like I was taking some nasty medicine, but took enormous guilty pleasure from the second, The Whisperer in Darkness, from which the influence of Lovecraft's stories on modern culture are evident.



The foreword by Stephen King is rather good as well.


View all my reviews.

1 comment:

Louise Brown said...

Ah. Odd spacing and the links internal to Goodreads don't work. Looks ok tho.