'Half-brothers Michel and Bruno have a mother in common but little else. Michel is a molecular biologist, a thinker and idealist, a man with no erotic life to speak of and little in the way of human society. Bruno, by contrast, is a libertine, though more in theory than in practice, his endless lust being all too rarely reciprocated. Both are symptomatic members of our atomised society, where religion has given way to shallow 'new age' philosophies and love to meaningless sexual connections.

"Atomised" tells the stories of two brothers, but the real subject of the novel is the dismantling of contemporary society and its assumptions, its political incorrectness, and its caustic and penetrating asides on everything from anthropology to the problem pages of girls' magazines.'

A strange mix of science and sex.

A '1001 ...' Book going travelling.

kiyoitsukikage - POLAND
kizmiaz - PORTUGAL
Tubereader - UK

No special rules or conditions - just manners!

Off to kiyoitsukikage in Poland in today's mail. Enjoy. X

It's here, thanks a lot.

I enjoyed the book. The author's style is quite interesting; I found particularly the "scientific" interjections quite amusing.
Thank you for sharing.

Sent to the next person today morning.

Just got it, I still have a couple to finish before starting this one but it won't take too long.

I had a good time reading this book, although the author tends to ramble a bit from time to time.
Michel and Bruno are not your typical 20th century men but they’re just as screwed up as most of them.
Love, sex and the human DNA play a part in the plot but this is by no means a traditional sort of plot. Sex is the big motivator for Bruno, although he practices mainly with himself, and DNA is Michel’s quest but neither has a clue about love, does anyone really? Or do we just think we do? Maybe we’re just reproducing what society has taught us.
I think I have an idea of what the author was aiming at but I may be wrong, it’s not so hard with this book. A lot of what happens here could be surmised in this deep philosophical thought ”Life’s a b*tch and then you die.”
But, as I’ve wrote before, I may be wrong.
I'll be sending it to Tubereader today (06.06.2008)

Received safely! Thanks a lot cat207 for sharing and kizmiaz for sending it through.

I have a few rings / rays ahead so, as I am the last to receive this one, I might take a while to get to it, but I will definitely read it as soon as I can (luckily the summer holidays are close which means more time for reading!).

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I have (finally!!) come round to reading this book. THanks for your patience!

I rememeber I used to see a lot of people reading this book in the Tube in London when it came out. I was not very much interested by it, as the cover made me think it was a book about some kind of girl that had been raped, or something in that style.

Then cat207 offered it as a ray and, as it is in the 1001 books list (its title in English in the list is "Elementary Particles"), I decided to sign up. As I was the last in the ray, I have had to put back reading it because I kept receiving new rings and rays where I was not the last one.

I finally came round to reading it and, much to my surprise, I have very much enjoyed the book. I must say that I liked the first half more than the second but, nevertheless, I have enjoyed the book very much. I find the way the characters are introduced to us at the beginning of the book very interesting: going back up in the family history as if that is an important part of what the characters become afterwards (which is true, anyway!). Then, I have also enjoyed the scientific references throughout the book. Given the ending of the book (and that I do not hold any advanced degree in sciences) I wonder whether they are correct or not, but I think the way they are written is a good way of making science accessible to everyone...

I think that in real life, I would be extremely repulsed by someone like Bruno, but the way he is presented in the book, it makes you feel sorry and understanding towards him...

Thanks cat207 for sharing, I am glad I have read this book.

I will be keeping it to put it in a bookbox to be decided...

Thanks so much for your donation Tubereader!

This book is now part of the 1001-library. If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the 1001-library bookshelf.

This book is now reserved for soffitta1's 1001-books / 1001-library EU-VBB, therefore, if you are interested in reading it, please join the VBB first (http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/457583)

This book has been requested by blackwidow1971 in the context of the 1001 EU VBB set up by soffitta1 and will be posted soon!

The book has been posted. Happy reading!

Safely received from Tubereader - thanks!

Unlike everyone else, I really didn't like this. It switches between a sad sort-of love story, explicit sex, and philosophical musings about science that I didn't understand. The sad story I quite enjoyed, the rest I didn't.

It also bothered me that the three main female characters all had porn star like sex lives. Maybe I've led a sheltered life, but I don't know any women whose sex lives have been anything like this. It just read like a dirty old man's fantasy.