Rating: 
Summary: Great Work
Review: In George Steiner's novella, The Portage to San Cristobel of A.H., Nazi hunters discover an aged Adolf Hitler living quietly in the Peruvian jungle. Their plan is to kill Hitler, however they offer him the chance to defend himself instead. He is defiant, reckless and taunts them. "I am an old man...You have made of me some kind of mad devil, the quintessence of evil, hell embodied. When I was, in truth, only a man of my time. Oh, inspired I grant you...with a nose for supreme political possibility. A master of human moods, perhaps, but a man of my time." Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (Celine was a pseudonym) was, like Steiner's Hitler, certainly an inspired man of his time, perhaps terrifyingly so. Born in 1894 to a lowly Parisian family, he had a brutal childhood. Poor, dysfunctional, but recklessly ambitious, he longed to escape all that constrained him. He eventually found a release of sorts through the study of medicine and, after patriotically enlisting, in the trenches of the western front. He was seriously wounded and later decorated. Celine's revulsion against his wartime experiences infused his debut, Journey to the End of Night (1934), perhaps the greatest work of nihilism, as well as one of the finest novels, of the century. The first hundred pages or so contain descriptions of the absurd carnage of war that few works, not even Erich Maria Remarque's, All Quiet on the Western Front, have matched. After the war, Celine qualified as a physician and traveled in French and Belgian colonial Africa before returning to work as a doctor among the urban poor of Paris. Celine draws freely from his bank of experiences in Journey to the End of Night; the adventures of the hero-narrator, Fedinand Bardamu, mimic exactly those of the author himself. He travel from the "fiery furnace" of the western front to the screaming jungles of central Africa, and from New York to the slums of Paris. The engine of Celine's disgust is an irrational misanthropy. It is irrational because it is contradictory: those he scourges, he later pities; those he helps, he comes to despise. In Ferdinand's despair at what industrialization and incipient democracy have done to the contemporary soul, we are reminded of the anguish of Nietzsche's raging free spirit, Zarathustra. Like Zarathustra, Fedinand rails against the instincts of mass man and of the "herd," then crowns himself with laughter. For without laughter he knows he is nothing. "Death is chasing you, you've always got to hurry, and while you're looking you've got to eat, and keep away from wars. That's a lot of things to do. It's no picnic." In this astonishing book, Celine immerses the reader in a torrential flow of language--fragmented, coarse, street poetic, blackly comic and full of neologisms and ellipses. For this reason, one can only reap the full impact of Celine when he is read in the original French. He writes of suffering, debased lives and poverty with reckless abandon. His vision of humanity in thrall to its own weakness is utterly cynical. He leads his characters--Robinson, a romantic wanderer, conscripted soldiers, abused prostitutes--to the edge of the abyss, the pushes them over. As they fall we hear only the sad echo of their voices--and Celine's wild and raucous laughter.
Rating:
Summary: A Dose of Black Humor, Worthwhile In Every Way
Review: "Journey" is generally considered to be the father of all black humor fiction. Celine's work flows onto the page not in a smooth and steady fashion, but chunky and uneven. Some of the situations the main character goes through are truly ridiculous (and semi-autobiographical)--and this is exactly what Celine was looking for. The story itself is interesting. It tells of the journeys of a single man through war and the world it puked up afterwards. I bought the book because so many authors noted it as one of their influences. This includes Joseph Heller, author of "Catch-22" and WWII soldier, as well as many others. Coming from a Jewish background, finding out that Celine was anti-Semitic did not change my views of the book itself. I found no hint of this in this piece of fiction. In many cases, Celine's words on the page seem as if they're screaming at you with emotion. It's this way of conveying feelings that was so new in his works and copied now so frequently. The less you notice it, the more modern books you've read using these techniques. It's definitely a worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: I see the light...
Review: In South America there is a tribe of Indians that designate who is to be a shaman or medicine man upon birth. The child is removed from its parents and taken high up the mountain to live with an old and wise shaman, who will be his teacher and guide. For the first 18 years of the child's life he is not permitted to leave the hut during the day or look upon the daylight. The child only observes the world vieled in darkness and illuminated the the stars and moon. On his 18th birthday, the shaman throws open the door at dawn, as the sun is casting its first glorious rays upon the jungle, and guides the child into the light. He turns to the child and says, "Now you see the world for what it truly is." For me, reading Celine was like the child's journey to wisdom. I have read a lot of books and authors, including Russian, German, French, American, English, Central American, and South American, but nothing as profound and moving as this work. Other authors I would recommend are Rimbaud, Henry Miller, Bukowski, and Henrich Boll.
Rating:
Summary: A Dose of Black Humor, Worthwhile In Every Way
Review: "Journey" is generally considered to be the father of all black humor fiction. Celine's work flows onto the page not in a smooth and steady fashion, but chunky and uneven. Some of the situations the main character goes through are truly ridiculous (and semi-autobiographical)--and this is exactly what Celine was looking for. The story itself is interesting. It tells of the journeys of a single man through war and the world it puked up afterwards. I bought the book because so many authors noted it as one of their influences. This includes Joseph Heller, author of "Catch-22" and WWII soldier, as well as many others. Coming from a Jewish background, finding out that Celine was anti-Semitic did not change my views of the book itself. I found no hint of this in this piece of fiction. In many cases, Celine's words on the page seem as if they're screaming at you with emotion. It's this way of conveying feelings that was so new in his works and copied now so frequently. The less you notice it, the more modern books you've read using these techniques. It's definitely a worthwhile read.
Rating: 
Summary: OK Celine
Review: Celine has a knack for making esoteric pseudo-philosophical observations about his own life and trying to apply them to everyone's life. The topics of these observations can be quite banal and only serve to distract, quite purposefully I assume, from the hollow plot. The introduction of the deus ex machina, Robinson, halfway through the book is when the descent to atrocity is reached. It's as if Celine ran out of ideas and was forced to contrive the last half of the book.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest French writer of the 20th century.
Review: This is one of the most scabrously funny books ever written. Celine writes with a slashing cynical style that never fails to make me laugh although I will admit that this book is too long; it should end on page 203 because everything after that is redundant. But even with that it's a fantastic book.
Rating:
Summary: No end in sight
Review: Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (Celine was a pseudonym) was, like Steiner's Hitler, certainly an inspired man of his time, perhaps terrifyingly so. Born in 1894 to a lowly Parisian family, he had a brutal childhood. Poor, dysfunctional, but recklessly ambitious, he longed to escape all that constrained him. He eventually found a release of sorts through the study of medicine and, after patriotically enlisting, in the trenches of the western front. He was seriously wounded and later decorated. Celine's revulsion against his wartime experiences infused his debut, Journey to the End of Night (1934), perhaps the greatest work of nihilism, as well as one of the finest novels, of the century. The first hundred pages or so contain descriptions of the absurd carnage of war that few works, not even Erich Maria Remarque's, All Quiet on the Western Front, have matched. After the war, Celine qualified as a physician and traveled in French and Belgian colonial Africa before returning to work as a doctor among the urban poor of Paris. Celine draws freely from his bank of experiences in Journey to the End of Night; the adventures of the hero-narrator, Fedinand Bardamu, mimic exactly those of the author himself. He travel from the "fiery furnace" of the western front to the screaming jungles of central Africa, and from New York to the slums of Paris. The engine of Celine's disgust is an irrational misanthropy. It is irrational because it is contradictory: those he scourges, he later pities; those he helps, he comes to despise. In Ferdinand's despair at what industrialization and incipient democracy have done to the contemporary soul, we are reminded of the anguish of Nietzsche's raging free spirit, Zarathustra. Like Zarathustra, Fedinand rails against the instincts of mass man and of the "herd," then crowns himself with laughter. For without laughter he knows he is nothing. "Death is chasing you, you've always got to hurry, and while you're looking you've got to eat, and keep away from wars. That's a lot of things to do. It's no picnic." In this astonishing book, Celine immerses the reader in a torrential flow of language--fragmented, coarse, street poetic, blackly comic and full of neologisms and ellipses. For this reason, one can only reap the full impact of Celine when he is read in the original French. He writes of suffering, debased lives and poverty with reckless abandon. His vision of humanity in thrall to its own weakness is utterly cynical. He leads his characters--Robinson, a romantic wanderer, conscripted soldiers, abused prostitutes--to the edge of the abyss, the pushes them over. As they fall we hear only the sad echo of their voices--and Celine's wild and raucous laughter.
Rating:
Summary: Bardamu, Misunderstood Idealist
Review: The most common reaction of people who don't like this book is "Why does he have to be so negative?" I've read it twice and have to say that in spite of what appears to be the scathing cynicism of the book, nonetheless the searching, idealistic, intelligent vitality of Bardamu comes through loud and clear. From his descriptions of the darker sides of humanity, the lighter side is brought into view, especially in Bardamu himself. He is driven by a desire that many people are deprived of while still young: to figure himself and life out to the best of his abilities. Wanderlust, restlessness and travel are his main tools of self-discovery. He moves from World War I France, to the depths of colonial Africa, to New York (described as a "fully erect city") and Detroit, and back to France again. Along the way he describes his loves, hopes and losses with hilarious sarcasm and real poetry. Another reviewer seems to take exception to Bardamu's self-avowed cowardice in the face of artillery fire in the war. To this I would respond 1) we can't all be heroes, 2) there are virtues other than courage, 3) he did enlist on his own at least before deciding getting killed wasn't such a great idea. Also, in real life Celine was wounded seriously in battle and was considered a hero in France, at least until he wrote this unconventional novel. So Bardamu's vices may be a bit of a comic exaggeration. But this is all beside the point. Anyone who is looking for a ready-made homily-ridden feel-good book should perhaps avoid this one. Anyone who is willing to look for the beauty despite the filth of life should point, click and buy. It is immensely rewarding, sad, and extremely funny. Above all it is tremendously vital and reads like a galloping horse of a book.
Rating:
Summary: FINALLY!
Review: Finally someone who knows the truth, and how to live with it. "Life's only truth is death". Bardamu is a man without illusions about life, without any hopes. He lives the senselesness of life with clear conscience, like Camus's "homme absurde". But this conscience doesn't make him desperate. Curiosity is his recipe against desperation. He knows that life, even if void of sense, is nonetheless interesting. So he puts himself in infinite different situations, he always searches new experiences. Not to draw any rational knowledge from this experiences. He's a perfect "phenomenologist", he just wants to experience.
This man without hopes, ideals or expectations has a peculiar "candeur". He tries to be objective about life. Mostly he looks at things and formulates negative opinions, but he's also able to recognize the few cases of real goodness he meets (I'm thinking of Molly and Alcide). I'd say that his behaviour is "cynical", in the original meaning of the term: without feelings. This allows him to be more objective than other people are...
This book is maybe the best of the last 50 I read. I thought to have found THE MAN! So i was really disappointed from his other books. They are very desperate: no more objectivity, no more "candeur", only a crusade against life!
Rating:
Summary: A New Prose Classic
Review: Celine being translated into English changed everything, if not everyone. I first read Celine on the insistence of Kerouac's ghost and was severely blown away. Vonnegut owes a debt to him. Burroughs owes him as well. It seems that every turn modern literature has taken owes a strange and unspoken debt to all that Celine has done. Despite his political misgivings or failings, his Christ-like gift to prose and the modern novel has been (since Vonnnegut) unparalleled.
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