Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
Published 2002 · 388 pages · 97,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction
How hard is Atomised to read?
Atomised scores 52 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 45 out of 100
- Scientific vocabulary and philosophical terms.
- Sentence structure: 45 out of 100
- Varied from clinical to emotional.
- Abstraction: 60 out of 100
- Philosophical about biology, society, and love.
- Information density: 55 out of 100
- Dense with science and social critique.
- Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
- Two brothers require comparison.
- Symbolic density: 55 out of 100
- The molecule, the brothers, sexuality carry weight.
- Ironic distance: 55 out of 100
- Houellebecq's nihilistic irony pervades.
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- Scientific resolution but human loss.
- Structural complexity: 50 out of 100
- Dual narratives with scientific frame.
How Atomised is regarded
Atomised holds a literary regard score of 68 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.