Michel Houellebecq’s characters spend a lot of time in supermarkets. In the opening pages of The Elementary Particles, the depressed main character scarfs down a prepackaged fillet of monkfish, sold under the “gourmet” line of the French supermarket brand Monoprix. In Submission, the narrator experiences a fleeting moment of existential dread when he reflects on having to choose between three microwavable chicken options. After quitting his job and moving into a hotel, the even more despondent hero of Serotonin finds relief upon discovering the multitude of hummus flavors available at his local “Carrefour City,” a better option than his local Monoprix: “I had had an inkling since my first visit that this shop would play an important part in my new life.” But perhaps the most glowing depiction of all comes in The Map and the Territory, when the author refers to a Casino hypermarket and a Shell gas station as the only “perceptible centers of energy” in the notoriously sleepy town of… Paris.
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