there was the controversy houellebecquiennes expected: on Islam, feminism, ecology… And then the other, as freedom and the taste of the provocation of the author, raised a little by chance. This time, the challenge came from the side of the Marais Poitevin, in the department of deux-Sèvres. The city of Niort felt highly injured by the last book of Michel Houellebecq, Serotonin , to appear on 4 January.

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The main character of the novel, Florent-Claude Labrouste describes the city of New-Aquitaine «as one of the cities most ugly I have ever seen». It does not take longer to mobilize Niortaises and Niortais.

The editors of The New Republic , the local daily newspaper, has even outraged the 28 December this «attack free». Giving Michel Houellebecq extraordinary powers to be a nuisance, and up to compare this sentence with «visions very parisian journalists in the capital, badly in need of inspiration».

It is here made reference to a report of France 2 that, in 2012, had portrayed the city as a city bleak and sad. A memory still painful for people who hoped for better advertising.

On Twitter, Matthew Le Gall, a journalist for The New Republic , considers that the note of the author of The Possibility of an Island is «very unfair» – reinforced by capital letters. He took the opportunity to post a picture of the notes as acrimonious as funny as the last-born of Michel Houellebecq: the Netherlands is «not a country» and the Dutch «really p****». The Parisian «eco-friendly» are ridiculous, as much as the phrase «good tasting!» uttered by the servers at the restaurant. The field, however wide, of the eye, mocking the writer has obviously not reassured Matthew Le Gall.

In its wake, Niortais angry have tempêté on the social networks. William Chick, member of parliament for the majority of the first district of deux-Sèvres, has called the writer back in the chef-lieu of the deux-Sèvres: «We will make you discover the riches of their city».

Roman Beef-Alary, referrer «Youth with Macron» of Charente-Maritime, has called for a boycott of Serotonin in the city of 60.000 inhabitants. Unpleasant remarks on the style of Michel Houellebecq, and on his physique, considered by some as «worse than Niort», have fused. One of the users, ready to everything and especially to swing on the nearby cities, suspects Michel Houellebecq have «never set foot in le Mans» to keep a judgment like that.

Emmanuel Macron, has decided to hand over the badge of the Legion of honour to the writer, in the promotion of the 1st of January. He becomes a knight, next to the star of the World Kylian Mbappé, or the creator of the Lotto’s heritage, Stéphane Bern.

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Michel Houellebecq has obviously suffered at Niort a reading in the first level of Serotonin . While, as stated by Frédéric Beigbeder in our columns on December 28, «this is not Houellebecq, which is expressed in it, but another version of itself.» This is true, not always obvious to a reader of Niort or elsewhere.