The Poet

I've had my galley of Michel Houellebecq's Annihilation for at least four months now; I've been able to stare at the tentative publication date of 10-8-24, thinking about when I'm going to get around to writing this review.

There's something in Houellebecq, the presence, the authority, the idea of Houellebecq as the author, that seemed to say, "Don't take this too seriously. Don't be too professional. Don't be a meek, little under-laborer of literature. Just sit with this. Write when you're ready." You don't need to do the traditional catalog of past novels and brief, arbitrary exegesis of the plot. Maybe just think about annihilation—the concept, the novel, the experience.