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A review by casparb
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
structurally a scoop - which is to say, I 'enjoyed', or was at least convinced by the first and last zones of the novel. It's bleak, nihilistic is the blurb's term which I shockingly feel is probably not a bad descriptor.
Extraordinarily visceral, with the first section being the french experience of ww1, a war hospital, the cynical fame-games veterans play for public adoration. All of the fluids are flowing. Actually, Kristeva's work on LFC is what prompted me here at all. After this section, not for a light stomach, our narrator is stationed in french-occupied Africa. This was difficult to read. I say racist in the sense that it made Tintin in the Congo look like a civilised discussion about postcolonial race relatinos. It's not only colonialism from the colonists' side, but gleefully so. EXTreme & I moved on swiftly. I should've mentioned also that Celine was fascist-friendly and loud about his antisemitism.
Anyway things get back a bit to the track after travels thru America and Paris I think and england. It gets almost noir-y at the end , a little chandler. it felt like a novel happening
His style is nice and bombastic and you wouldn't believe it's from the thirties, he's kind of known as king of the ellipsis ..... .. . . which is very effective and appreciated whenever it arrived
but that middle experience dampened my enjoyment , I wish fewer people were shits.
Extraordinarily visceral, with the first section being the french experience of ww1, a war hospital, the cynical fame-games veterans play for public adoration. All of the fluids are flowing. Actually, Kristeva's work on LFC is what prompted me here at all. After this section, not for a light stomach, our narrator is stationed in french-occupied Africa. This was difficult to read. I say racist in the sense that it made Tintin in the Congo look like a civilised discussion about postcolonial race relatinos. It's not only colonialism from the colonists' side, but gleefully so. EXTreme & I moved on swiftly. I should've mentioned also that Celine was fascist-friendly and loud about his antisemitism.
Anyway things get back a bit to the track after travels thru America and Paris I think and england. It gets almost noir-y at the end , a little chandler. it felt like a novel happening
His style is nice and bombastic and you wouldn't believe it's from the thirties, he's kind of known as king of the ellipsis ..... .. . . which is very effective and appreciated whenever it arrived
but that middle experience dampened my enjoyment , I wish fewer people were shits.