Has Houellebecq Found a Happy Ending?

In a 2010 interview with The Paris Review, Michel Houellebecq explained that he was not a “reactionary,” since he believes it is impossible to resist social change. “You can only observe and describe,” Houellebecq said. “I’ve always liked Balzac’s very insulting statement that the only purpose of the novel is to show the disasters produced by the changing of values . . . that’s what I do: I show the disasters produced by the liberalization of values.”