H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life

Houellebecq's book on Lovecraft, written when he was a young and unknown French poet. Uses Lovecraft — his racism, his cosmic pessimism, his horror of the modern city — as a lens for the 20th century's failure to love its own life. It's really a Houellebecq book about Houellebecq, and the better for it.