Extension of the domain of struggle (1994)

Published in 1994, The Extension of the Fight for Dominance is the debut novel by French writer Michel Houellebecq.

A raw and disillusioned vision of contemporary Western society: individualism, existential emptiness, the commodification of human relationships.

Written in the first person by a 30-year-old computer engineer. A profound emotional apathy, a world where love and sex have become scarce commodities, reproducing economic inequalities.

The tone is somber. The humor is "black". The temperature, icy. Almost clinical.

To the Liberals who have already read the book, the question: Do we want neoliberalism in our private lives? I thought so.

Michel Houellebecq was born in 1956 on the French island of Réunion. He is a writer, controversial, polemical, provocative and, perhaps because of this, influential. He is not afraid to confront uncomfortable topics such as sexuality, religion, the decline of the West. 

Should he? Is that where we are? Again?