Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Paris, Denoël et Steele, (1934)
Description
Louis-Ferdinand Celine's revulsion and anger at what he considered the idiocy and hypocrisy of society explodes from nearly every page of this novel. Filled with slang and obscenities and written in raw, colloquial language, Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of violence, cruelty and obscene nihilism. This book shocked most critics when it was first published in France in 1932, but quickly became a success with the reading public in Europe, and later in America, where it was first published by New Directions in 1952. The story of the improbable yet convincingly described travels of the petit-bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu, from the trenches of World War I, to the African jungle, to New York and Detroit, and finally to life as a failed doctor in Paris, takes the readers by the scruff and hurtles them toward the novel's inevitable, sad conclusion.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member poetontheone
Céline's work is a modern day Odyssey fat with pessimism and desperation, the veiled autobiographical travelogue of a down and out narrator. It's influence on Miller and Bukowski, their prose echoing back to it with long screams, is obvious. Much like Miller, the narrative is thick and harsh like
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smoke, and is easiest to ingest in small bursts, twenty pages at a time. After awhile though it's easy to surrender, to look Bardamu in the eyes and see in them at least a fraction of one's self. Though within the dark and clinching atmosphere, Céline is able to inspire a mature and subtle beauty, conjuring strong and enduring images when he is not throwing out cynical aphorisms that demand to be marked. This is a book that is far ahead of its time, and eighty years later, it is as much a conviction of this time as any other. A rewarding and fulfilling read if one is willing to dirty their hands and trudge through a bit of venom. Show Less
LibraryThing member BayardUS
In a nutshell, here's this book: everything is shit. War is shit. Colonized Africa is shit. The United States is shit. France is shit. Being a doctor is shit. Not being a doctor is shit. Carnivals are shit. Maybe one person in a thousand isn't complete shit, but even if you find a person like that
I'm not a nihilist, so the message of this book didn't resonate with me, and I didn't find any of it funny, though some lines were clearly supposed to be. Really, if you aren't a nihilist or huge pessimist who likes having your worldview reinforced, and you already realize that there's a dark, savage side to human nature, I don't see what there is to get out of this book. The characters are flat, the writing is solid, the settings are just sketches. I found this work uninteresting.
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they'll be surrounded by shit, so you'll just keep wandering until you're surrounded by only shitty people again. The rich are shit. The poor are shit. Women are fun to have sex with, but otherwise they're shit. Men are shit. To live is to slog through this endless morass of shit in hopes of finding something better, but you'll never find it, and what awaits you at the end of that stinking bog is death. I'm not a nihilist, so the message of this book didn't resonate with me, and I didn't find any of it funny, though some lines were clearly supposed to be. Really, if you aren't a nihilist or huge pessimist who likes having your worldview reinforced, and you already realize that there's a dark, savage side to human nature, I don't see what there is to get out of this book. The characters are flat, the writing is solid, the settings are just sketches. I found this work uninteresting.
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LibraryThing member lriley
Probably my favorite book of all. Without a doubt the one that turned me into a reader. Celine is probably not for every taste. There's no disputing his racism--his anti-semitism. I don't wish to make excuses for it. With all that a great writer and a true innovator. To go beyond that is to hear
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always a voice constantly that speaks to you. It's very unusual in the world of literature to feel riveted just to the language of a story. He had an unique and a rare talent. The action of the book moves from the battlefields of the first world war to the French colonial empire represented by Cameroon to the New World presented first by New York City and then Detroit and into the Ford automobible factories and then back to Paris into the slums--into the mean spirited world of the lower bourgeoise which leads inevitably to an insane asylum--leads to murder. There is a lot of pathos in Celine. There is a lot of raw language intertwined with raw feeling. There is even more than just a little humor. Celine can make you laugh out loud. He can bring you to tears. It's not an easy ride but to me a worthwhile one. No book or author has ever effected me in quite the same way and I've read this book many times and reread almost all ot his work. Show Less
LibraryThing member DinoReader
I can confirm all the prior reviews that discuss Celine's negative view of humanity and life but what is important is that, placed in time, this is an amazing work whose literary style anticipates most of the twentieth century. It has an energy and directness that may have been done by a few
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previous writers but was not widely used for another few decades. It's not the message, it's the style that makes this book important. Show Less
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
A long, beautiful, hilarious, vile, cynical rant about everything and everyone. Bile drips from every page.
The author-surrogate travels from Paris to the hellscape of the first world war to the dank oppressive heat of a colonial jungle, and the gleaming lonely crowds of New York and Detroit. The
This is a fascinating book. Christ, what an asshole.
The author-surrogate travels from Paris to the hellscape of the first world war to the dank oppressive heat of a colonial jungle, and the gleaming lonely crowds of New York and Detroit. The
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author has a keen eye for the ugliness and bitterness and loneliness of modern living, and takes his time to appreciate and lovingly describe each thing he hates.This is a fascinating book. Christ, what an asshole.
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LibraryThing member P1g5purt
Journey To The End Of The Night is an almost unrelenting blast of misanthropy, mysogyny and nihilism. Tracing the fortunes of Bardamu, a thinly veiled Celine, through his experiences in the trenches of the First World War, French colonial Africa, Detriot and finally Paris it's a narrative marked
The overarching narrative drive is the bittterness and rage at senseless slaughter and the casual indifference to the destruction of mans environment. For a book first published in 1932 it's remarkably relevant!
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with Celines disgust at man's folly, malice and greed. What stops it from buckling under the weight of despair, however, is it's darkly comic edge and the occasional satirical asides.The overarching narrative drive is the bittterness and rage at senseless slaughter and the casual indifference to the destruction of mans environment. For a book first published in 1932 it's remarkably relevant!
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LibraryThing member datrappert
It's taken me a long time to get around to reviewing this book. It is such a sprawling novel, with so many great passages, that I felt I had to write a review that did it justice. As I was reading, it was easy to see how Celine influenced the great Charles Bukowski, for instance. But where would I
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start with a review? There is squalor, there is crime, there is war, there are so many things here, and only at times does it drag even a little. The protagonist, Ferdinand, seemingly for no good reason enlists in the French Army for World War I, where at one point he runs into Léon, who he is unable to avoid for the rest of the book, which at times it more about Léon than about Ferdinand. Léon's loves, Léon's murder plots, and so on. Even when Ferdinand goes to America and works for a while in Detroit, he still runs into Léon. In any case, this is not a book about plot, although there is more than enough going on--French colonial Africa (Léon again), an insane asylum (actually one of the more upbeat parts of the book), and lots of poverty and ill-advised journeys. It is really Ferdinand's observations about all of this that are the center of the book and provide the most pleasure in reading it. I have the follow-up, Death on the Installment Plan, on my shelf ready to go, as soon as I have some uninterrupted days available to enjoy it. Maybe I can manage to write a real review for it! Show Less
LibraryThing member AlCracka
Um...okay? Henry Miller told me to? This is one of those books that appear on "to-read" lists for about half my Goodreads friends, but zero of them have actually read it. And since my GR friends are an erudite pack (which is why I'm friends with them - so I can see what they think of books and then
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pretend that's what I think too), this makes me nervous. Show Less
LibraryThing member the_terrible_trivium
I put it down at least twice because I felt I couldn't go on with it for another few hundred pages and then when I finished I felt sad because there weren't a few hundred pages left to go through. A book you live in, and it's a bit grim and oppressive but it grows on you. The humor helps, and it's
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a very human book, whatever I mean by that. Too bad the author was a Nazi, but what can you do? Show Less
LibraryThing member charlie68
I found the writing good, but the general tone of the book dark and depressing. I was always searching for a light switch, metaphorically speaking.
LibraryThing member japaul22
This novel was written in 1932 and was very popular with the French public and also the critics. It is the story of Bardamu and is told kind of like an autobiography. Bardamu is a soldier in WWI when he is 20 and his experience there shapes his life dramatically. He struggles with mental problems
The biggest defeat in every department of life is to forget, especially the things that have done you in, and to die without realizing how far people can go in the way of crumminess. When the grave lies open before us, let's not try to be witty, but on the other hand, let's not forget, but make it our business to record the worst of the human viciousness we've seen without changing one word. When that's done, we can curl up our toes and sink into the pit. That's work enough for a lifetime.
You'd think a passage like that would come at the end of the book. Nope - page 18. Maybe describing Bardamu as pessimistic is an understatement!
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from the war and travels from place to place (West Africa, New York, Detroit, Paris, Southern France, etc.) without making any real connections to anyone. The writing in this novel is really interesting and kind of saved this book for me. Bardamu is dark - he's pessimistic and makes horrible decisions. There are no characters in this book that really have any redeeming qualities, but Celine's writing is so stark and there's something so electric about it that the novel still works.The biggest defeat in every department of life is to forget, especially the things that have done you in, and to die without realizing how far people can go in the way of crumminess. When the grave lies open before us, let's not try to be witty, but on the other hand, let's not forget, but make it our business to record the worst of the human viciousness we've seen without changing one word. When that's done, we can curl up our toes and sink into the pit. That's work enough for a lifetime.
You'd think a passage like that would come at the end of the book. Nope - page 18. Maybe describing Bardamu as pessimistic is an understatement!
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LibraryThing member barbharper
For the last four years I have made it a point to read diffictult books, and this is the most difficult yet. Not because of syntax or complexity of thought, but because of the unrelenting pessimism of the protagonist's world view. I suspect that he closely mirrors the author, who never resists an
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opportunity to exemplify the contempt he feels for humanity. After reading this my mind needs a literary cleansing, the chance to read something upbeat and hopeful. Celine is the anti-Jane Austen. Where she celebrates gentility, manners and social connectedness, Celine rubs our faces in bigotry, hypocrisy and misanthropy. His one good character, a prostitute with a heart of gold (spare me!) , is exploited by his protagonist.. If you can get over the bile, this could be a great novel. The author daringly exposes lies that we accept without question, such as patriotism in the service of a war machine and the nobility of sacrifice. His description of the stinking streets of the poor sections of Paris will haunt me. The book is powerfully written and symbolically complex, especially the images of night and light. It's very odd how the protagonist Bardamu is a physician (again mirroring Celine himself) but has no desire to alleviate suffering or dedication to the profession. He just does his job to earn money. Celine never talks about Bardamu's childhood, or why he took up medicine. The book ends very abruptly ("But that's enough of that!") as if Celine got tired of the whole thing. Show Less
LibraryThing member Miguelnunonave
An incredible journey (the protagonist's life) throughout difficult times. Very intense and realistic, great psychological insights but also quite sad and grim.
LibraryThing member stillatim
Of course this was wildly revolutionary and changed the world and that sort of thing. On the other hand, it reminds me pretty strongly of the nineteenth century: a hefty dose of Baudelaire and Rimbaud; combined (odd, I admit) with seventeenth and eighteenth century picaresque novels. Does anything
Now, I must admit two important points: first, nothing pisses me off quite as much as when an author ruins an incredible 300 page novel by writing an okay 450 page one; and the translation, from 1983, makes Celine sound like a slightly grumpier Salinger. I'm not sure that's really the effect he was going for. I assume he's meant to sound like a lower class, under-sexed Sade. So these two things probably ruined my appreciation of the novel. Manheim was (I've been told) a great translator of German literature, and an okay translator of German philosophy. Maybe because he'd translated Mein Kampf and the transcripts from the Eichman trials someone thought he was a good bet for Celine? Darkside and all that? But nope.
It's also possible that having grown up when I did, the 'shocking' literature of previous ages lacks the shock effect. If you've ever heard moderately sad black metal you'll know that there's nothing misanthropic about Celine. If you've ever heard moderately violent hip-hop, you'll know there's not much violent about him. If you've read McCarthy, you'll know Celine's not all that terrifying. And if you've read anything written in the last 40 years you'll know that he's a literary prude. So. Where does this leave Celine? Basically, as a moralist who loves children and adores people who sacrifice themselves for the good of others. Now *that,* I admit, is shocking.
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happen? Yes, lots of things. Do they have any connection whatsoever? Not really. Are any of them good? One or two, but mostly no. Is it a great book? Well, not any better than Tom Jones. And not close to as savage as Gulliver's Travels. And not as beautifully ugly as the aforementioned French poets. So, y'know. Revolutionary? Not really. Interesting? Sure. Now, I must admit two important points: first, nothing pisses me off quite as much as when an author ruins an incredible 300 page novel by writing an okay 450 page one; and the translation, from 1983, makes Celine sound like a slightly grumpier Salinger. I'm not sure that's really the effect he was going for. I assume he's meant to sound like a lower class, under-sexed Sade. So these two things probably ruined my appreciation of the novel. Manheim was (I've been told) a great translator of German literature, and an okay translator of German philosophy. Maybe because he'd translated Mein Kampf and the transcripts from the Eichman trials someone thought he was a good bet for Celine? Darkside and all that? But nope.
It's also possible that having grown up when I did, the 'shocking' literature of previous ages lacks the shock effect. If you've ever heard moderately sad black metal you'll know that there's nothing misanthropic about Celine. If you've ever heard moderately violent hip-hop, you'll know there's not much violent about him. If you've read McCarthy, you'll know Celine's not all that terrifying. And if you've read anything written in the last 40 years you'll know that he's a literary prude. So. Where does this leave Celine? Basically, as a moralist who loves children and adores people who sacrifice themselves for the good of others. Now *that,* I admit, is shocking.
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LibraryThing member araridan
Journey to the End of Night is like a "hero's journey" story but our hero, Ferdinand Bardamu, is kinda an asshole, but he's not unsympathetic. Bardamu starts by joining the French military and fighting in a war, then travelling to Africa, then on to America (New York and Detroit), then back to
Over and over again the words "night" and "darkness" come up. While sometimes they are literal, mainly they seem to describe the default feelings of many people. A sense of pointlessness or depression, emptiness or tedium, and ultimately death. It takes effort to escape the "night" and often there are only moments of "light" or "day" to break it up. As harsh as it may come across, it's difficult not to see some truth in this viewpoint of the human condition.
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France. He works a variety of jobs, fucks a variety of women, and basically has some adventures of an ordinary caliber. His view of humanity is not often pleasant or optimistic, but then the world is full of idiots, jerks, and people with their own agendas. Over and over again the words "night" and "darkness" come up. While sometimes they are literal, mainly they seem to describe the default feelings of many people. A sense of pointlessness or depression, emptiness or tedium, and ultimately death. It takes effort to escape the "night" and often there are only moments of "light" or "day" to break it up. As harsh as it may come across, it's difficult not to see some truth in this viewpoint of the human condition.
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LibraryThing member narwhaltortellini
(I'm not really going for rating this book's worth here, but just thought I'd mention how this was different from my expectations, in case anyone else was looking for the same thing.)
When I read about this book it sounded a bit reminiscent of Catch-22 and other such works, so I decided to try it.
In other words: Interesting, maybe, but not something I want to hand around with for this many pages. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn't had to finish the entire thing as fast as possible for school, though. Still, I wasn't exactly looking for an upbeat, thigh-slapping good time with this (I'm not an complete idiot ^^), I was prepared for the negativity. It's just not as amusing as I was hoping for, the resigned tone was just a bit much for me.
When I read about this book it sounded a bit reminiscent of Catch-22 and other such works, so I decided to try it.
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It is indeed darkly funny at times, but not so consistently, and the main character is so overwhelmingly hopeless I had trouble enjoying it. His humor doesn't seem to give him any relief or amusement, and seems more like depressive or nasty venting. Actually he somewhat reminds me of the television character House (which, considering the misanthropic Bardamu is at one point a doctor, I'm sure comes to other people's minds as well), but just consider what that show would be like if it was a lot less medical mystery and interaction with other characters, and instead was filled with the resigned inner grumblings of the main character.In other words: Interesting, maybe, but not something I want to hand around with for this many pages. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn't had to finish the entire thing as fast as possible for school, though. Still, I wasn't exactly looking for an upbeat, thigh-slapping good time with this (I'm not an complete idiot ^^), I was prepared for the negativity. It's just not as amusing as I was hoping for, the resigned tone was just a bit much for me.
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LibraryThing member aannttiiiittnnaa
"Chin up Ferdinand" Got me through some tough times.
This book covers so many years and places, you feel like you've always lived alongside the author by the time it's finished. He allows you inside his head to such a degree, that there is definitely a sense of loss when all those pages are finally
This book covers so many years and places, you feel like you've always lived alongside the author by the time it's finished. He allows you inside his head to such a degree, that there is definitely a sense of loss when all those pages are finally
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over! One of my very favorite books for a long time, though now I think I have forgotten most of it...due to read it again I think. Show Less
LibraryThing member grandeghi
Il viaggio al termine della notte è l’opera con cui Celine ha modificato, per sempre, il senso della letteratura mondiale. Un’opera fondamentale, necessaria, senza la quale nessun lettore può arrogarsi il diritto di definirsi tale. La scansione letteraria degli ultimi anni della prima metà
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del secolo scorso di Celine è un capolavoro di provocazione, cultura, rottura, una lotta contro il conformismo, il buonismo, il senso comune. Il viaggio al termine della notte è un romanzo autobiografico con cui Celine racconta la sua guerra, la sua esperienza coloniale, la sua vita da emigrato negli Stati Uniti, il suo ritorno in Francia. E l’aggettivo possessivo serve per attribuire il senso personale, intimo che ha la narrazione di Celine, l’individuo che corre nella notte della ragione, cercando in sé stesso, nel suo edonismo, la ricetta salvifica della vita. Le pagine scorrono e rimane il senso fortissimo delle parole con cui l’autore francese rappresenta i fatti e le emozioni. Scandalizzando, rompendo gli argini della cultura di chi fa cultura per professione, non per cultura, con posizioni tanto irriverenti da sembrare scontate. E la professione di medico di Celine rafforza concettualmente il mestiere dello scrittore, del grande scrittore. Questo romanzo fu rifiutato da Gallimard, il più grande editore francese del secolo, che lo liquidò come un banale romanzo comunista. E così, a seguito di questo clamoroso errore editoriale, entra in scena il piccolo editore Donoel che pubblica un libro che ha scritto la storia. Poi c’è la storia di Celine, anche quella non è una storia comune, non è la solita storia. L’origine del capolavoro che promana da queste pagine. Show Less
LibraryThing member berthirsch
Journey to the End of The Night – Ferdinand Celine
Celine’s first novel written in 1932 and, this Ralph Manheim translation in 1983.. For many, this is considered a modern masterpiece. It is biographical in nature following Celine’s experiences as a soldier in WW I, as an adventurer in Africa,
A fast moving tale in 430 pages, we meet a cast of characters worthy of a Dicken’s novel: soldiers, nurses, bureaucrats, greedy capitalists, inhumane colonists, ambitious prostitutes, working stiffs, medical researchers, lunatics, dysfunctional families and Ferdinand’s heartbroken best friend, Robinson. Interacting with these is the novel’s protagonist, Ferdinand Bardamu – alter ego to Celine.
Celine’s writing style is punchy, gritty, funny, cynical, insightful, and non-stop. While reading, I was often reminded of a slew of novelists, many who were directly influenced by him: William Burroughs, Paul Bowles, Roberto Bolano, Jack Kerouac, Joseph Heller, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, Ken Kesey, Roberto Arlt, Antonio Antunes, and the French novelist Michel Houellebecq. While not thinking of Philip Roth I later learned that he declared, “Celine is my Proust”.
The story unfolds as Bardamu, a young medical student sits in a café chatting with a friend. As they talk Ferdinand sees a platoon of recruits marching and, caught up in the patriotic gallant fervor, he impulsively follows them and is recruited into the army.
Celine captures the day-to-day life of the soldier at war: “in the four weeks the war had been going on, we’d grown tired, so miserable, that tiredness had taken away some of my fear…every yard of darkness ahead of us was a promise of death and destruction.”
He quickly though learns the ropes, regular recruits avoided all enemy contacts: “We seemed to be looking for them, but we beat it the moment we laid eyes on them”. As Celine describes these scenes one can envision Joseph Heller transcribing his Catch 22, or one sitting in front of the telly watching an episode of F Troop or MASH. On a nighttime mission, “I moved from tree to tree, accompanied by the clanking of my hardware. All by itself my pretty saber made as much noise as a piano. I don’t know if I was deserving of sympathy, but for sure I was certainly grotesque.”
Inevitably injured, shot, Ferdinand takes leave to Paris where he takes up with an “adorable” American nurse, Lola, yet he succumbs to a panic attack, while walking in a park, “behind every tree a dead man”. Later in a crowded restaurant, “they’re going to shoot…beat it all of you, unrestrained” the MPs come to get him, “delirious, driven mad by fear…to the hospital.”
As he struggles with his recovery he and his fellow veterans’ frequent whorehouses, (this passage captures both Celine’s humor and cynicism):
“We went there to grope for our happiness, which all the world was threatening with the utmost ferocity. We were ashamed of wanting what we wanted, but something had to be done about it all the same. Love is harder to give up than life. In this world we spend our time killing or adoring, or both together. ‘I hate you! I adore you!’ We keep going, we fuel and refuel, we pass on our life to a biped in the next century, with frenzy, at any cost, as if it were the greatest of pleasures to perpetuate ourselves, as if, when all’s said and done, it would make us immortal. One way or another, kissing is as indispensable as scratching.”
Found unfit for duty, Bardamu takes off for Africa, looking for escape and possibly a fresh start on life. After a horribly uncomfortable passage he arrives and finds employment in a colony governed by French bureaucrats. Everyone was miserable but “virulent anarchy was held in check, like crabs in a basket, by a hermetic police structure. The civil servants griped in vain, for the Governor, to keep his colony in subjection, was able to recruit all the moth-eaten mercenaries he needed, impoverished blacks driven to the coast by debts, defeated by the law of supply and demand, and needful of something to eat. These recruits were taught the law and how to admire the Governor. The Governor seemed to wear all the gold in the treasury on his uniform…in the blazing sunshine, it surpassed belief, even without the plumes.”
It does not take long for Bardamu to become disillusioned. He quickly sees the failure of colonialism and capitalism for what it is. In the blazing hot sun and rotting jungles of Africa no one survives. From the natives, to the clerks, the Director, each trying to make their way, but the tropics take its toll and the only winners are the stockholders “on Rue Money in Paris”.
He meets up with his old Army buddy Robinson who is already planning his escape to the coast and freedom. Bardamu takes to a canoe but ends up in the hands of a slave galley that takes him to New York. Adventures there and in Detroit are well described in gritty and humorous ways. Again, disillusioned Bardamu longs to return to Paris.
There he finished his medical training and becomes a doctor in the poor side of town, Rancy on the outskirts of Paris. A meager existence he finds, often stiffed by his working-class clients, he succumbs to begging for his fees as if he were a waiter in a sidewalk café. In a crazy kind of way this existence suited him, a man with no interest in making it, surviving from day to day, existing on his wits and dismal philosophies of life. Sadly, he observes, “old age means not having a passionate role to play anymore, seeing your theater fold up on you, so there’s nothing but death to look forward to.”
Life takes a turn when he is hired to doctor at an asylum for the mentally ill. Located in a more middle-class neighborhood Celine captures the essence of suburban culture: “the people are anxious, the children no longer have the same accent as their parents…the local cleaning women raised their prices…a bookmaker has been sighted…the priest says ‘shit’ at the drop of a hat and gives stock market tips to his parishioners…three developers have gone to jail. Progress sweeps on!"
The last section of the book takes place at the asylum as many characters return to play out the final act.
This is a book worth reading. A modern novel of the 1930s that is still current in its descriptions, analysis and insights. A masterpiece.
Celine’s first novel written in 1932 and, this Ralph Manheim translation in 1983.. For many, this is considered a modern masterpiece. It is biographical in nature following Celine’s experiences as a soldier in WW I, as an adventurer in Africa,
Show More
the United States and then settling into a career as a medical physician.A fast moving tale in 430 pages, we meet a cast of characters worthy of a Dicken’s novel: soldiers, nurses, bureaucrats, greedy capitalists, inhumane colonists, ambitious prostitutes, working stiffs, medical researchers, lunatics, dysfunctional families and Ferdinand’s heartbroken best friend, Robinson. Interacting with these is the novel’s protagonist, Ferdinand Bardamu – alter ego to Celine.
Celine’s writing style is punchy, gritty, funny, cynical, insightful, and non-stop. While reading, I was often reminded of a slew of novelists, many who were directly influenced by him: William Burroughs, Paul Bowles, Roberto Bolano, Jack Kerouac, Joseph Heller, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, Ken Kesey, Roberto Arlt, Antonio Antunes, and the French novelist Michel Houellebecq. While not thinking of Philip Roth I later learned that he declared, “Celine is my Proust”.
The story unfolds as Bardamu, a young medical student sits in a café chatting with a friend. As they talk Ferdinand sees a platoon of recruits marching and, caught up in the patriotic gallant fervor, he impulsively follows them and is recruited into the army.
Celine captures the day-to-day life of the soldier at war: “in the four weeks the war had been going on, we’d grown tired, so miserable, that tiredness had taken away some of my fear…every yard of darkness ahead of us was a promise of death and destruction.”
He quickly though learns the ropes, regular recruits avoided all enemy contacts: “We seemed to be looking for them, but we beat it the moment we laid eyes on them”. As Celine describes these scenes one can envision Joseph Heller transcribing his Catch 22, or one sitting in front of the telly watching an episode of F Troop or MASH. On a nighttime mission, “I moved from tree to tree, accompanied by the clanking of my hardware. All by itself my pretty saber made as much noise as a piano. I don’t know if I was deserving of sympathy, but for sure I was certainly grotesque.”
Inevitably injured, shot, Ferdinand takes leave to Paris where he takes up with an “adorable” American nurse, Lola, yet he succumbs to a panic attack, while walking in a park, “behind every tree a dead man”. Later in a crowded restaurant, “they’re going to shoot…beat it all of you, unrestrained” the MPs come to get him, “delirious, driven mad by fear…to the hospital.”
As he struggles with his recovery he and his fellow veterans’ frequent whorehouses, (this passage captures both Celine’s humor and cynicism):
“We went there to grope for our happiness, which all the world was threatening with the utmost ferocity. We were ashamed of wanting what we wanted, but something had to be done about it all the same. Love is harder to give up than life. In this world we spend our time killing or adoring, or both together. ‘I hate you! I adore you!’ We keep going, we fuel and refuel, we pass on our life to a biped in the next century, with frenzy, at any cost, as if it were the greatest of pleasures to perpetuate ourselves, as if, when all’s said and done, it would make us immortal. One way or another, kissing is as indispensable as scratching.”
Found unfit for duty, Bardamu takes off for Africa, looking for escape and possibly a fresh start on life. After a horribly uncomfortable passage he arrives and finds employment in a colony governed by French bureaucrats. Everyone was miserable but “virulent anarchy was held in check, like crabs in a basket, by a hermetic police structure. The civil servants griped in vain, for the Governor, to keep his colony in subjection, was able to recruit all the moth-eaten mercenaries he needed, impoverished blacks driven to the coast by debts, defeated by the law of supply and demand, and needful of something to eat. These recruits were taught the law and how to admire the Governor. The Governor seemed to wear all the gold in the treasury on his uniform…in the blazing sunshine, it surpassed belief, even without the plumes.”
It does not take long for Bardamu to become disillusioned. He quickly sees the failure of colonialism and capitalism for what it is. In the blazing hot sun and rotting jungles of Africa no one survives. From the natives, to the clerks, the Director, each trying to make their way, but the tropics take its toll and the only winners are the stockholders “on Rue Money in Paris”.
He meets up with his old Army buddy Robinson who is already planning his escape to the coast and freedom. Bardamu takes to a canoe but ends up in the hands of a slave galley that takes him to New York. Adventures there and in Detroit are well described in gritty and humorous ways. Again, disillusioned Bardamu longs to return to Paris.
There he finished his medical training and becomes a doctor in the poor side of town, Rancy on the outskirts of Paris. A meager existence he finds, often stiffed by his working-class clients, he succumbs to begging for his fees as if he were a waiter in a sidewalk café. In a crazy kind of way this existence suited him, a man with no interest in making it, surviving from day to day, existing on his wits and dismal philosophies of life. Sadly, he observes, “old age means not having a passionate role to play anymore, seeing your theater fold up on you, so there’s nothing but death to look forward to.”
Life takes a turn when he is hired to doctor at an asylum for the mentally ill. Located in a more middle-class neighborhood Celine captures the essence of suburban culture: “the people are anxious, the children no longer have the same accent as their parents…the local cleaning women raised their prices…a bookmaker has been sighted…the priest says ‘shit’ at the drop of a hat and gives stock market tips to his parishioners…three developers have gone to jail. Progress sweeps on!"
The last section of the book takes place at the asylum as many characters return to play out the final act.
This is a book worth reading. A modern novel of the 1930s that is still current in its descriptions, analysis and insights. A masterpiece.
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LibraryThing member mitchanderson
A tragic and perspicacious account of life’s absurd mundanity. Has its dry moments, but on the whole contains a number of thoughtful, if not poetic, philosophical bits, great character development and leaves you with some scenic memories to boot.
LibraryThing member MykelBoard
This is the best book ever written. The foundation of THE BEATS, THE MODERNISTS, THE GONZOS. This is it. Translated from the French. (France must have more great authors per capita than any other country.)
Awards
Language
Original language
French
Original publication date
1932 (original French)
1983 (English: Manheim)
Physical description
623 p.; 19 cm