** experimental fiction...remined be of donald barthelme

Soumission has two things going on in it. It's another Houllebecq novel about a depressed white male for whom sex is the one true thing in life. It's also a dystopian novel about a near future where all of Europe has been peacefully taken over by Muslims. The two lines intersect at the end when the main character has a chance to get his teaching job back if he converts to Islam. Houellebecq manages to make this all seem plausible. Though he is probably no fan of Islam, he does a good job of showing why it might triumph over European liberal humanism. He even manages to show its appeal, in a scene where a rich and powerful Muslim lays everything out for the main character.