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A review by conorpittman
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
5.0
Journey to the End of the Night is a well-written and profound novel detailing the life and adventures of the narrator, Ferdinand Bardamu (loosely based on the author himself). The novel is deeply existentialist and pessimistic in tone, portraying a crumbling humanity rife with apathy and immorality. Almost every major character in the book has one or more major vices, and most, especially toward the end, demonstrate abject cruelty and disregard for others. Céline portrays humanity through a lens of its negative qualities, and this is amplified through the viewpoint of Bardamu who infused everything with a very sterile and negative tone. The characters in the novel toil endlessly, trying to escape their wretched lives but always ending up in the same place.
The novel is incredibly well written and there were many times when I was stopped by a particularly good sentence.
The characters are all fairly fleshed out and given good characterization. The locations are also very detailed and give you a good sense of the locales Bardamu visits.
A note to some readers, the book was written in the 20’s during France’s colonial control over Africa, and includes copious amounts of extreme racism and racist language, especially when Bardamu is in the African colonies.
Overall I would recommend this book to people who enjoy 20th century literature and existentialist literature.
The novel is incredibly well written and there were many times when I was stopped by a particularly good sentence.
The characters are all fairly fleshed out and given good characterization. The locations are also very detailed and give you a good sense of the locales Bardamu visits.
A note to some readers, the book was written in the 20’s during France’s colonial control over Africa, and includes copious amounts of extreme racism and racist language, especially when Bardamu is in the African colonies.
Overall I would recommend this book to people who enjoy 20th century literature and existentialist literature.