Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-12% $15.00$15.00
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
$14.00$14.00
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Bigblue82
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
The Possibility of an Island (Vintage International) Paperback – May 8, 2007
Purchase options and add-ons
Surprisingly poignant, philosophically compelling, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, The Possibility of an Island is at once an indictment, an elegy, and a celebration of everything we have and are at risk of losing. It is a masterpiece from one of the world’s most innovative writers.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVintage
- Publication dateMay 8, 2007
- Dimensions5.23 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
- ISBN-100307275213
- ISBN-13978-0307275219
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may ship from close to you
Editorial Reviews
Review
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Product details
- Publisher : Vintage; Reprint edition (May 8, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0307275213
- ISBN-13 : 978-0307275219
- Item Weight : 10.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.23 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #287,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,717 in Fiction Satire
- #2,842 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #16,209 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The last two sections are much different from the earlier chapters and are worth reading through the muck. I realized this morning that my reaction to it was like the reaction to "Lady Chatterly" a century ago. Like "Chatterley" the book needs its graphic nature to make its point, and like Lawrence, there is a point to be made. Collectively, this book affords a pretty grim picture of our world now and our world centuries from now, so if you can make it past the initial shock, there is something worthwhile to find.
This book has a number of high marks. Houellebecq isn't thought of as a sci-fi writer, but his science fiction scenarios have a quiet elegance to them, a sort of foreboding and sense of inevitability. In this sense, he matches and exceeds traditional science fiction writers. In a way, I wonder if his return to form here has something to do with his subject matter. Houellebecq is, of course, brilliant in Platform, but without the aspirations inherent in writing scifi, it could be that he surrendered to a smallness in thinking.
Radikal Hip Hop... Houellebecq (this is the second time I've written Celine in place of his name, despite that their writing is not similar in the least) has a brutal mind for the kitsch. In fact, there's a hilarious line on kitsch and its relation to art: "everything is kitsch, if you like. music as a whole is kitsch; art is kitsch; literature itself is kitsch. any emotion is kitsch, practically by definition; but any reflection also, and even in a sense any action, the only thing that is not absolutely kitsch is nothingness." It's great to see that Houellebecq isn't afraid of developing what is essentially a hipster's aesthetic. Funny and a little unnerving at the same time - could it be that the hipsters have had it right all along?
This book is simultaneously more and less allusive than Houellebecq's previous work. Where there would be a two page essay in Elementary particles, there is a paragraph or two here. On the other hand, Houellebecq now seems to have no problem casually namedropping Celine, Rochefoucauld, Rochelle, and so on. This signals, I think, an efficiency in thinking and more of a thought for form - after all, by this point Houellebecq has enough credibility that his mentioning "Rochefoucauld" should be enough for the dedicated reader to look the man up for himself. I agree - Good job!
Looking forward to reading The Map and the Territory. Bravo, Houellebecq. By the way, there is a picture of him that was published recently where he looks exactly like Celine - it's bizarre
I am sorry to be so harsh, but I could not wait for it to end. Now I must confess, that I didn't wait. I put it down, turned off the switch. I will probably swipe through it at some point to see how the symphony of stupidity of the masses and immature lasciviousness of the man come together ('scuse the pun) in the end ('scuse the pun). It had great potential, though, and he writes sex scenes well, if you like May-December sex rather than mature-mature sex.
PS: the Bill Gates Steve Jobs moment was such that it allowed me to swipe the Kindle with astounding rapidity, for I no longer worried about missing something "important."