From the NYer's new
Bookbench blog, Houellebecq's an author not even a
mother could love. (I've no plans to read him myself. From the secondhand reports, inevitably no comparison to Celine ...)
As for Camus,
The Stranger (as I knew it) may be overrated, but its author (and his other writings) underrated; I've preferred his other writings, whether fictional or philosophic (whatever the difference) to those of Sartre.