Worth Reading.., 01 Oct 2008
Epic, descriptive, but large portions of not much unfortunately.
Miller did better with "cancer.." though celine came first and was highly influential.
Concerning his time abroad but mainly in France. Its worth reading but wont blow yer mind if youve already read Kafka/Miller and others..

Slimy goodness for the stinking proletariat, open your maws and eat literature!, 05 Aug 2006
To read books like Journey or Death on Credit to works like Ulysses is to think of the sound the words make in your mind. Read them aloud inside your head and the reading becomes easy, let the language move, like lyrics in a song. Ulysses is a positive expression of mans existence and Celines view is the opposite. Celine verbal ballet is perhaps not for everyone, in later works he sounds like a irritable grumpy old man, whose own failings are blamed on everyone else; it becomes a tedious tune to listen to. Nihilistic self-disgust and a hatred of the human condition can only be fun for so long, before it turns to poison. As a man he was probably a loathsome little creep, involved in the Vichy regime, it seems he wanted to blacken and char his reputation; so others would loath him as much as he did. His ego let him down, but in the process it created a very interesting literary legacy. Okay, this is an over-simplistic review (hey, this is an amazon amateur review for the unwashed masses), but I hope you get the drift, this is a difficult book, but essentially worth the effort to consume over 400 pages. Most books that go on for this long could have done with some editing, this is no different, but it seems to fit with Celines personality. All diatribes tend to go on for too long.It is Celine that is at the heart of this novel, deep down it's all about Celine. Celine against the world. This is not to say the books are not without some human decency or a clever sense of humour. There is a charred humour here.
Then add the hindsight that this author would side with a political regime that sided with those who committed acts of evil on a monumental scale, a man whose beliefs damned him.

I recommend other authors if you like Celine. Picaresque novels like Cervantes work, Rabelais ouvre, Blaise Cendrars work like Gold or Moravagine. Knut Hamsun- Hunger. Nonsense like Flicker by Theodore Roszak (apparently now being made into a film by Darren Aronofsky...)

Other novels not related to Celine I'd recommend if you liked the previous list:
Jan Potocki "The Manuscript Found In Saragossa". I love this book dearly, as I do Life: A Users Manual by George Perec.The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza

Picaresque Crime Fiction: David Peace: his Red Riding quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, a queasy epic of ugly times and ugly people. A vision of Hell sketched around real events in Yorkshire. If you like James Ellroy, you like this just as much.

Irrefutable, 20 Mar 2006
This books is an opus of the last century, and in truth is the finest book I have read. Issues of style, content and humanity all make this one of the best books.
Celines voyage commences in darkness and remains in darkness but the slivers of hope and insight he offers are astounding.

Refreshing, 19 Oct 2005
I live in Ireland in 2005, it's funny how our own corrupt, drunken, unsympathetic and acquisitive little country bears no fundamental difference from the world as described by Celine. Far from being depressed by this knowledge I find it liberating, I am confirmed in my view that human nature remains constant, change is slow and the semblance of civilisation is but a illusion manufactured and promulgated by a weak and spineless media.

Hubris, 17 Jul 2004
To imagine that we have somehow "transcended" the deathly message of "Journey" ... that we have, in the intervening years since its writing, outgrown its critique ... that we are 'better than that now' ... truly is a self-deluding but completely unsurprising state of affairs.

Celine transfixes the ugly, petty, ignorant cant & hypocrisy of human intercourse ... most people won't enjoy the experience ... as the man writes: "life consists of madness spiked with lies ... the truth is inedible" ...

Celine's great & furious disappointment [read "Fable For Another Time"], is that his collaboration with the Nazis let us off the hook ... we need no longer take his vision seriously ... no, not much.

Worth Reading.., 01 Oct 2008
Epic, descriptive, but large portions of not much unfortunately.
Miller did better with "cancer.." though celine came first and was highly influential.
Concerning his time abroad but mainly in France. Its worth reading but wont blow yer mind if youve already read Kafka/Miller and others..

Slimy goodness for the stinking proletariat, open your maws and eat literature!, 05 Aug 2006
To read books like Journey or Death on Credit to works like Ulysses is to think of the sound the words make in your mind. Read them aloud inside your head and the reading becomes easy, let the language move, like lyrics in a song. Ulysses is a positive expression of mans existence and Celines view is the opposite. Celine verbal ballet is perhaps not for everyone, in later works he sounds like a irritable grumpy old man, whose own failings are blamed on everyone else; it becomes a tedious tune to listen to. Nihilistic self-disgust and a hatred of the human condition can only be fun for so long, before it turns to poison. As a man he was probably a loathsome little creep, involved in the Vichy regime, it seems he wanted to blacken and char his reputation; so others would loath him as much as he did. His ego let him down, but in the process it created a very interesting literary legacy. Okay, this is an over-simplistic review (hey, this is an amazon amateur review for the unwashed masses), but I hope you get the drift, this is a difficult book, but essentially worth the effort to consume over 400 pages. Most books that go on for this long could have done with some editing, this is no different, but it seems to fit with Celines personality. All diatribes tend to go on for too long.It is Celine that is at the heart of this novel, deep down it's all about Celine. Celine against the world. This is not to say the books are not without some human decency or a clever sense of humour. There is a charred humour here.
Then add the hindsight that this author would side with a political regime that sided with those who committed acts of evil on a monumental scale, a man whose beliefs damned him.

I recommend other authors if you like Celine. Picaresque novels like Cervantes work, Rabelais ouvre, Blaise Cendrars work like Gold or Moravagine. Knut Hamsun- Hunger. Nonsense like Flicker by Theodore Roszak (apparently now being made into a film by Darren Aronofsky...)

Other novels not related to Celine I'd recommend if you liked the previous list:
Jan Potocki "The Manuscript Found In Saragossa". I love this book dearly, as I do Life: A Users Manual by George Perec.The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza

Picaresque Crime Fiction: David Peace: his Red Riding quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, a queasy epic of ugly times and ugly people. A vision of Hell sketched around real events in Yorkshire. If you like James Ellroy, you like this just as much.

Irrefutable, 20 Mar 2006
This books is an opus of the last century, and in truth is the finest book I have read. Issues of style, content and humanity all make this one of the best books.
Celines voyage commences in darkness and remains in darkness but the slivers of hope and insight he offers are astounding.

Refreshing, 19 Oct 2005
I live in Ireland in 2005, it's funny how our own corrupt, drunken, unsympathetic and acquisitive little country bears no fundamental difference from the world as described by Celine. Far from being depressed by this knowledge I find it liberating, I am confirmed in my view that human nature remains constant, change is slow and the semblance of civilisation is but a illusion manufactured and promulgated by a weak and spineless media.

Hubris, 17 Jul 2004
To imagine that we have somehow "transcended" the deathly message of "Journey" ... that we have, in the intervening years since its writing, outgrown its critique ... that we are 'better than that now' ... truly is a self-deluding but completely unsurprising state of affairs.

Celine transfixes the ugly, petty, ignorant cant & hypocrisy of human intercourse ... most people won't enjoy the experience ... as the man writes: "life consists of madness spiked with lies ... the truth is inedible" ...

Celine's great & furious disappointment [read "Fable For Another Time"], is that his collaboration with the Nazis let us off the hook ... we need no longer take his vision seriously ... no, not much.

Dynamite, 05 Mar 1999
The only novels I've ever read that are better are "Huckleberry Finn" and Celine's "Death on the Installment Plan." This book is far better than "Journey to the End of Night" and slightly more endearing than "Castle to Castle." A masterpiece of "social criticism," set against the dying days of Nazi Germany, but applicable to anywhere, any time. Read only the Manheim translation.

A fine depiction of life under the reich., 09 Jan 1998
This novel about Celine's ordeal under nazi germany is a hyperhectic account about his travails & sacrifices dealing with people & places which are no better off than him.What is striking & humorous about this frenetic narrative is how he is able to bring a whole world war & its inhabitants into his hands & unloads them into a style & survivalist frame of mind that is entirely his own.Though not containing the depth & numerous brilliance of journey & death,what this novel has is the consistency that leads to a rough & jumpy ride all the way through.The beginning may be stiff,but it loosens to economic brilliance shortly afterwards.

a rave., 19 Sep 1997
Without reservation I recommend this book to everyone. Celine is the seminal author of the 20th century. No one else even comes close. And North is his masterpiece. He invented the three dot narrative style that, once read, ruins you for wordy mediocrity of other writers. The style and the prose and the dark, but oh-so-true philosophy leave you breathless. You become a Celine fanatic and spend the rest of your life searching out everything he ever wrote. And check out his cat, Bebert, one of the most fascinating animals in literature. Read Celine to learn how to write. Authors like Vonnegut, Mailer and Bellow all agree he is without peer. Read North. Read the entire corpus of Celine's works. Then spend the rest of your life re-reading Celine.

Relentless monology of high enery driven cynical observation, 07 Feb 1997
Immediately the reader is swept away in a cascading avalanche of thought driven by the sight of the end of a world that was slowly sinking into insanity. Nazi Germany, the allied bombings, and the constant struggle to survive one more minute in a village where life was determined by food rations and an out of control Gestapo. The book pulses with such energy making it hard to put down. Simply mind opening to a unique literary style!

Celine, still running from bombs, finds himself a nazi docto, 04 Jan 1997
Perpetually running from the perils of war, Destouches finds himself acting as collaborator in WWII.. a nazi doctor, routed around in confusion, &, as always, trying simply to save his own skin. This Dalkey Archive edition comes complete with a glossary of historical references.

Forget what you've heard about him writing only two good books, read this: "...whenever they get a chance, never fear, people make you waste hours and months...they use you as a wall to bounce their bullshit off of...blah! and blah! and blahblahblah!...you put up with it for an hour, you'll need two weeks to recover...blah! blah!...hitch a thoroughbred to a plow, it'll take him a month, two months, to get back in his stride...if he ever does...the same can happen to you for trying to be nice, for listening..."

Worth Reading.., 01 Oct 2008
Epic, descriptive, but large portions of not much unfortunately.
Miller did better with "cancer.." though celine came first and was highly influential.
Concerning his time abroad but mainly in France. Its worth reading but wont blow yer mind if youve already read Kafka/Miller and others..

Slimy goodness for the stinking proletariat, open your maws and eat literature!, 05 Aug 2006
To read books like Journey or Death on Credit to works like Ulysses is to think of the sound the words make in your mind. Read them aloud inside your head and the reading becomes easy, let the language move, like lyrics in a song. Ulysses is a positive expression of mans existence and Celines view is the opposite. Celine verbal ballet is perhaps not for everyone, in later works he sounds like a irritable grumpy old man, whose own failings are blamed on everyone else; it becomes a tedious tune to listen to. Nihilistic self-disgust and a hatred of the human condition can only be fun for so long, before it turns to poison. As a man he was probably a loathsome little creep, involved in the Vichy regime, it seems he wanted to blacken and char his reputation; so others would loath him as much as he did. His ego let him down, but in the process it created a very interesting literary legacy. Okay, this is an over-simplistic review (hey, this is an amazon amateur review for the unwashed masses), but I hope you get the drift, this is a difficult book, but essentially worth the effort to consume over 400 pages. Most books that go on for this long could have done with some editing, this is no different, but it seems to fit with Celines personality. All diatribes tend to go on for too long.It is Celine that is at the heart of this novel, deep down it's all about Celine. Celine against the world. This is not to say the books are not without some human decency or a clever sense of humour. There is a charred humour here.
Then add the hindsight that this author would side with a political regime that sided with those who committed acts of evil on a monumental scale, a man whose beliefs damned him.

I recommend other authors if you like Celine. Picaresque novels like Cervantes work, Rabelais ouvre, Blaise Cendrars work like Gold or Moravagine. Knut Hamsun- Hunger. Nonsense like Flicker by Theodore Roszak (apparently now being made into a film by Darren Aronofsky...)

Other novels not related to Celine I'd recommend if you liked the previous list:
Jan Potocki "The Manuscript Found In Saragossa". I love this book dearly, as I do Life: A Users Manual by George Perec.The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza

Picaresque Crime Fiction: David Peace: his Red Riding quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, a queasy epic of ugly times and ugly people. A vision of Hell sketched around real events in Yorkshire. If you like James Ellroy, you like this just as much.

Irrefutable, 20 Mar 2006
This books is an opus of the last century, and in truth is the finest book I have read. Issues of style, content and humanity all make this one of the best books.
Celines voyage commences in darkness and remains in darkness but the slivers of hope and insight he offers are astounding.

Refreshing, 19 Oct 2005
I live in Ireland in 2005, it's funny how our own corrupt, drunken, unsympathetic and acquisitive little country bears no fundamental difference from the world as described by Celine. Far from being depressed by this knowledge I find it liberating, I am confirmed in my view that human nature remains constant, change is slow and the semblance of civilisation is but a illusion manufactured and promulgated by a weak and spineless media.

Hubris, 17 Jul 2004
To imagine that we have somehow "transcended" the deathly message of "Journey" ... that we have, in the intervening years since its writing, outgrown its critique ... that we are 'better than that now' ... truly is a self-deluding but completely unsurprising state of affairs.

Celine transfixes the ugly, petty, ignorant cant & hypocrisy of human intercourse ... most people won't enjoy the experience ... as the man writes: "life consists of madness spiked with lies ... the truth is inedible" ...

Celine's great & furious disappointment [read "Fable For Another Time"], is that his collaboration with the Nazis let us off the hook ... we need no longer take his vision seriously ... no, not much.

Dynamite, 05 Mar 1999
The only novels I've ever read that are better are "Huckleberry Finn" and Celine's "Death on the Installment Plan." This book is far better than "Journey to the End of Night" and slightly more endearing than "Castle to Castle." A masterpiece of "social criticism," set against the dying days of Nazi Germany, but applicable to anywhere, any time. Read only the Manheim translation.

A fine depiction of life under the reich., 09 Jan 1998
This novel about Celine's ordeal under nazi germany is a hyperhectic account about his travails & sacrifices dealing with people & places which are no better off than him.What is striking & humorous about this frenetic narrative is how he is able to bring a whole world war & its inhabitants into his hands & unloads them into a style & survivalist frame of mind that is entirely his own.Though not containing the depth & numerous brilliance of journey & death,what this novel has is the consistency that leads to a rough & jumpy ride all the way through.The beginning may be stiff,but it loosens to economic brilliance shortly afterwards.

a rave., 19 Sep 1997
Without reservation I recommend this book to everyone. Celine is the seminal author of the 20th century. No one else even comes close. And North is his masterpiece. He invented the three dot narrative style that, once read, ruins you for wordy mediocrity of other writers. The style and the prose and the dark, but oh-so-true philosophy leave you breathless. You become a Celine fanatic and spend the rest of your life searching out everything he ever wrote. And check out his cat, Bebert, one of the most fascinating animals in literature. Read Celine to learn how to write. Authors like Vonnegut, Mailer and Bellow all agree he is without peer. Read North. Read the entire corpus of Celine's works. Then spend the rest of your life re-reading Celine.

Relentless monology of high enery driven cynical observation, 07 Feb 1997
Immediately the reader is swept away in a cascading avalanche of thought driven by the sight of the end of a world that was slowly sinking into insanity. Nazi Germany, the allied bombings, and the constant struggle to survive one more minute in a village where life was determined by food rations and an out of control Gestapo. The book pulses with such energy making it hard to put down. Simply mind opening to a unique literary style!

Celine, still running from bombs, finds himself a nazi docto, 04 Jan 1997
Perpetually running from the perils of war, Destouches finds himself acting as collaborator in WWII.. a nazi doctor, routed around in confusion, &, as always, trying simply to save his own skin. This Dalkey Archive edition comes complete with a glossary of historical references.

Forget what you've heard about him writing only two good books, read this: "...whenever they get a chance, never fear, people make you waste hours and months...they use you as a wall to bounce their bullshit off of...blah! and blah! and blahblahblah!...you put up with it for an hour, you'll need two weeks to recover...blah! blah!...hitch a thoroughbred to a plow, it'll take him a month, two months, to get back in his stride...if he ever does...the same can happen to you for trying to be nice, for listening..."

The importance of the translator., 10 May 2006
This edition of London Bridge is part two of Guignol's Band but, whereas the widely available edition of part one was translated by Ralph Manhiem, London Bridge wasn't. For anyone familiar with Celine in the translations of Manheim they will miss not only the wonderful rhythm of the language but the dark humour and beauty which is evident in so many passages, even - or especially - in the most hysterical and rabid passages. The present translator of London Bridge, Dominic Di Bernadi, is unable to match the fluidity of Manheim's translation and seems to have no feel for language itself. The impression is either of someone forced to translate a work they have no love for, or, someone translating into a language which is not their first from a language which also is not their first. The translator's introdution implies the former. In the introduction he feels it necessary to justify the very fact that he is translating Celine at all. At the moment though, this is the only translation of London Bridge available and worth reading for those who have read Guignol's Band Part One and are interested in Celine. Worth reading... but only until a better translation comes along, which, hopefully, won't be too long as Fable For Another Time has recently been released in a wonderful translation which matches the quality of Manheim.

Worth Reading.., 01 Oct 2008
Epic, descriptive, but large portions of not much unfortunately.
Miller did better with "cancer.." though celine came first and was highly influential.
Concerning his time abroad but mainly in France. Its worth reading but wont blow yer mind if youve already read Kafka/Miller and others..

Slimy goodness for the stinking proletariat, open your maws and eat literature!, 05 Aug 2006
To read books like Journey or Death on Credit to works like Ulysses is to think of the sound the words make in your mind. Read them aloud inside your head and the reading becomes easy, let the language move, like lyrics in a song. Ulysses is a positive expression of mans existence and Celines view is the opposite. Celine verbal ballet is perhaps not for everyone, in later works he sounds like a irritable grumpy old man, whose own failings are blamed on everyone else; it becomes a tedious tune to listen to. Nihilistic self-disgust and a hatred of the human condition can only be fun for so long, before it turns to poison. As a man he was probably a loathsome little creep, involved in the Vichy regime, it seems he wanted to blacken and char his reputation; so others would loath him as much as he did. His ego let him down, but in the process it created a very interesting literary legacy. Okay, this is an over-simplistic review (hey, this is an amazon amateur review for the unwashed masses), but I hope you get the drift, this is a difficult book, but essentially worth the effort to consume over 400 pages. Most books that go on for this long could have done with some editing, this is no different, but it seems to fit with Celines personality. All diatribes tend to go on for too long.It is Celine that is at the heart of this novel, deep down it's all about Celine. Celine against the world. This is not to say the books are not without some human decency or a clever sense of humour. There is a charred humour here.
Then add the hindsight that this author would side with a political regime that sided with those who committed acts of evil on a monumental scale, a man whose beliefs damned him.

I recommend other authors if you like Celine. Picaresque novels like Cervantes work, Rabelais ouvre, Blaise Cendrars work like Gold or Moravagine. Knut Hamsun- Hunger. Nonsense like Flicker by Theodore Roszak (apparently now being made into a film by Darren Aronofsky...)

Other novels not related to Celine I'd recommend if you liked the previous list:
Jan Potocki "The Manuscript Found In Saragossa". I love this book dearly, as I do Life: A Users Manual by George Perec.The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza

Picaresque Crime Fiction: David Peace: his Red Riding quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, a queasy epic of ugly times and ugly people. A vision of Hell sketched around real events in Yorkshire. If you like James Ellroy, you like this just as much.

Irrefutable, 20 Mar 2006
This books is an opus of the last century, and in truth is the finest book I have read. Issues of style, content and humanity all make this one of the best books.
Celines voyage commences in darkness and remains in darkness but the slivers of hope and insight he offers are astounding.

Refreshing, 19 Oct 2005
I live in Ireland in 2005, it's funny how our own corrupt, drunken, unsympathetic and acquisitive little country bears no fundamental difference from the world as described by Celine. Far from being depressed by this knowledge I find it liberating, I am confirmed in my view that human nature remains constant, change is slow and the semblance of civilisation is but a illusion manufactured and promulgated by a weak and spineless media.

Hubris, 17 Jul 2004
To imagine that we have somehow "transcended" the deathly message of "Journey" ... that we have, in the intervening years since its writing, outgrown its critique ... that we are 'better than that now' ... truly is a self-deluding but completely unsurprising state of affairs.

Celine transfixes the ugly, petty, ignorant cant & hypocrisy of human intercourse ... most people won't enjoy the experience ... as the man writes: "life consists of madness spiked with lies ... the truth is inedible" ...

Celine's great & furious disappointment [read "Fable For Another Time"], is that his collaboration with the Nazis let us off the hook ... we need no longer take his vision seriously ... no, not much.

Dynamite, 05 Mar 1999
The only novels I've ever read that are better are "Huckleberry Finn" and Celine's "Death on the Installment Plan." This book is far better than "Journey to the End of Night" and slightly more endearing than "Castle to Castle." A masterpiece of "social criticism," set against the dying days of Nazi Germany, but applicable to anywhere, any time. Read only the Manheim translation.

A fine depiction of life under the reich., 09 Jan 1998
This novel about Celine's ordeal under nazi germany is a hyperhectic account about his travails & sacrifices dealing with people & places which are no better off than him.What is striking & humorous about this frenetic narrative is how he is able to bring a whole world war & its inhabitants into his hands & unloads them into a style & survivalist frame of mind that is entirely his own.Though not containing the depth & numerous brilliance of journey & death,what this novel has is the consistency that leads to a rough & jumpy ride all the way through.The beginning may be stiff,but it loosens to economic brilliance shortly afterwards.

a rave., 19 Sep 1997
Without reservation I recommend this book to everyone. Celine is the seminal author of the 20th century. No one else even comes close. And North is his masterpiece. He invented the three dot narrative style that, once read, ruins you for wordy mediocrity of other writers. The style and the prose and the dark, but oh-so-true philosophy leave you breathless. You become a Celine fanatic and spend the rest of your life searching out everything he ever wrote. And check out his cat, Bebert, one of the most fascinating animals in literature. Read Celine to learn how to write. Authors like Vonnegut, Mailer and Bellow all agree he is without peer. Read North. Read the entire corpus of Celine's works. Then spend the rest of your life re-reading Celine.

Relentless monology of high enery driven cynical observation, 07 Feb 1997
Immediately the reader is swept away in a cascading avalanche of thought driven by the sight of the end of a world that was slowly sinking into insanity. Nazi Germany, the allied bombings, and the constant struggle to survive one more minute in a village where life was determined by food rations and an out of control Gestapo. The book pulses with such energy making it hard to put down. Simply mind opening to a unique literary style!

Celine, still running from bombs, finds himself a nazi docto, 04 Jan 1997
Perpetually running from the perils of war, Destouches finds himself acting as collaborator in WWII.. a nazi doctor, routed around in confusion, &, as always, trying simply to save his own skin. This Dalkey Archive edition comes complete with a glossary of historical references.

Forget what you've heard about him writing only two good books, read this: "...whenever they get a chance, never fear, people make you waste hours and months...they use you as a wall to bounce their bullshit off of...blah! and blah! and blahblahblah!...you put up with it for an hour, you'll need two weeks to recover...blah! blah!...hitch a thoroughbred to a plow, it'll take him a month, two months, to get back in his stride...if he ever does...the same can happen to you for trying to be nice, for listening..."

The importance of the translator., 10 May 2006
This edition of London Bridge is part two of Guignol's Band but, whereas the widely available edition of part one was translated by Ralph Manhiem, London Bridge wasn't. For anyone familiar with Celine in the translations of Manheim they will miss not only the wonderful rhythm of the language but the dark humour and beauty which is evident in so many passages, even - or especially - in the most hysterical and rabid passages. The present translator of London Bridge, Dominic Di Bernadi, is unable to match the fluidity of Manheim's translation and seems to have no feel for language itself. The impression is either of someone forced to translate a work they have no love for, or, someone translating into a language which is not their first from a language which also is not their first. The translator's introdution implies the former. In the introduction he feels it necessary to justify the very fact that he is translating Celine at all. At the moment though, this is the only translation of London Bridge available and worth reading for those who have read Guignol's Band Part One and are interested in Celine. Worth reading... but only until a better translation comes along, which, hopefully, won't be too long as Fable For Another Time has recently been released in a wonderful translation which matches the quality of Manheim.

Brilliant writer, 10 Aug 2000
I have reviewed his classic "Journey to the End of the Night" and have no wish to repeat myself but the man is a genius story teller..always a ranting autobiographical descent into a pessimistic,cynical view of life....thoroughly warranted judging by his own life experience....the man must be the best novelist of the 20th century..many people would agree with this who know far better than I do all the various styles and writers that have filled the literary columns...but just read one page to get the flavour..you will be drawn into the spell of his emotional "transposition" as he puts it...just brilliant brilliant stuff.....it is , as I say perhaps his best novel..although "Journey" comes close...he gets "better" with every novel but death on credit is the one to choose out of the whole let to get the real Celinian flavour.....

Worth Reading.., 01 Oct 2008
Epic, descriptive, but large portions of not much unfortunately.
Miller did better with "cancer.." though celine came first and was highly influential.
Concerning his time abroad but mainly in France. Its worth reading but wont blow yer mind if youve already read Kafka/Miller and others..

Slimy goodness for the stinking proletariat, open your maws and eat literature!, 05 Aug 2006
To read books like Journey or Death on Credit to works like Ulysses is to think of the sound the words make in your mind. Read them aloud inside your head and the reading becomes easy, let the language move, like lyrics in a song. Ulysses is a positive expression of mans existence and Celines view is the opposite. Celine verbal ballet is perhaps not for everyone, in later works he sounds like a irritable grumpy old man, whose own failings are blamed on everyone else; it becomes a tedious tune to listen to. Nihilistic self-disgust and a hatred of the human condition can only be fun for so long, before it turns to poison. As a man he was probably a loathsome little creep, involved in the Vichy regime, it seems he wanted to blacken and char his reputation; so others would loath him as much as he did. His ego let him down, but in the process it created a very interesting literary legacy. Okay, this is an over-simplistic review (hey, this is an amazon amateur review for the unwashed masses), but I hope you get the drift, this is a difficult book, but essentially worth the effort to consume over 400 pages. Most books that go on for this long could have done with some editing, this is no different, but it seems to fit with Celines personality. All diatribes tend to go on for too long.It is Celine that is at the heart of this novel, deep down it's all about Celine. Celine against the world. This is not to say the books are not without some human decency or a clever sense of humour. There is a charred humour here.
Then add the hindsight that this author would side with a political regime that sided with those who committed acts of evil on a monumental scale, a man whose beliefs damned him.

I recommend other authors if you like Celine. Picaresque novels like Cervantes work, Rabelais ouvre, Blaise Cendrars work like Gold or Moravagine. Knut Hamsun- Hunger. Nonsense like Flicker by Theodore Roszak (apparently now being made into a film by Darren Aronofsky...)

Other novels not related to Celine I'd recommend if you liked the previous list:
Jan Potocki "The Manuscript Found In Saragossa". I love this book dearly, as I do Life: A Users Manual by George Perec.The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza

Picaresque Crime Fiction: David Peace: his Red Riding quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, a queasy epic of ugly times and ugly people. A vision of Hell sketched around real events in Yorkshire. If you like James Ellroy, you like this just as much.

Irrefutable, 20 Mar 2006
This books is an opus of the last century, and in truth is the finest book I have read. Issues of style, content and humanity all make this one of the best books.
Celines voyage commences in darkness and remains in darkness but the slivers of hope and insight he offers are astounding.

Refreshing, 19 Oct 2005
I live in Ireland in 2005, it's funny how our own corrupt, drunken, unsympathetic and acquisitive little country bears no fundamental difference from the world as described by Celine. Far from being depressed by this knowledge I find it liberating, I am confirmed in my view that human nature remains constant, change is slow and the semblance of civilisation is but a illusion manufactured and promulgated by a weak and spineless media.

Hubris, 17 Jul 2004
To imagine that we have somehow "transcended" the deathly message of "Journey" ... that we have, in the intervening years since its writing, outgrown its critique ... that we are 'better than that now' ... truly is a self-deluding but completely unsurprising state of affairs.

Celine transfixes the ugly, petty, ignorant cant & hypocrisy of human intercourse ... most people won't enjoy the experience ... as the man writes: "life consists of madness spiked with lies ... the truth is inedible" ...

Celine's great & furious disappointment [read "Fable For Another Time"], is that his collaboration with the Nazis let us off the hook ... we need no longer take his vision seriously ... no, not much.

Dynamite, 05 Mar 1999
The only novels I've ever read that are better are "Huckleberry Finn" and Celine's "Death on the Installment Plan." This book is far better than "Journey to the End of Night" and slightly more endearing than "Castle to Castle." A masterpiece of "social criticism," set against the dying days of Nazi Germany, but applicable to anywhere, any time. Read only the Manheim translation.

A fine depiction of life under the reich., 09 Jan 1998
This novel about Celine's ordeal under nazi germany is a hyperhectic account about his travails & sacrifices dealing with people & places which are no better off than him.What is striking & humorous about this frenetic narrative is how he is able to bring a whole world war & its inhabitants into his hands & unloads them into a style & survivalist frame of mind that is entirely his own.Though not containing the depth & numerous brilliance of journey & death,what this novel has is the consistency that leads to a rough & jumpy ride all the way through.The beginning may be stiff,but it loosens to economic brilliance shortly afterwards.

a rave., 19 Sep 1997
Without reservation I recommend this book to everyone. Celine is the seminal author of the 20th century. No one else even comes close. And North is his masterpiece. He invented the three dot narrative style that, once read, ruins you for wordy mediocrity of other writers. The style and the prose and the dark, but oh-so-true philosophy leave you breathless. You become a Celine fanatic and spend the rest of your life searching out everything he ever wrote. And check out his cat, Bebert, one of the most fascinating animals in literature. Read Celine to learn how to write. Authors like Vonnegut, Mailer and Bellow all agree he is without peer. Read North. Read the entire corpus of Celine's works. Then spend the rest of your life re-reading Celine.

Relentless monology of high enery driven cynical observation, 07 Feb 1997
Immediately the reader is swept away in a cascading avalanche of thought driven by the sight of the end of a world that was slowly sinking into insanity. Nazi Germany, the allied bombings, and the constant struggle to survive one more minute in a village where life was determined by food rations and an out of control Gestapo. The book pulses with such energy making it hard to put down. Simply mind opening to a unique literary style!

Celine, still running from bombs, finds himself a nazi docto, 04 Jan 1997
Perpetually running from the perils of war, Destouches finds himself acting as collaborator in WWII.. a nazi doctor, routed around in confusion, &, as always, trying simply to save his own skin. This Dalkey Archive edition comes complete with a glossary of historical references.

Forget what you've heard about him writing only two good books, read this: "...whenever they get a chance, never fear, people make you waste hours and months...they use you as a wall to bounce their bullshit off of...blah! and blah! and blahblahblah!...you put up with it for an hour, you'll need two weeks to recover...blah! blah!...hitch a thoroughbred to a plow, it'll take him a month, two months, to get back in his stride...if he ever does...the same can happen to you for trying to be nice, for listening..."

The importance of the translator., 10 May 2006
This edition of London Bridge is part two of Guignol's Band but, whereas the widely available edition of part one was translated by Ralph Manhiem, London Bridge wasn't. For anyone familiar with Celine in the translations of Manheim they will miss not only the wonderful rhythm of the language but the dark humour and beauty which is evident in so many passages, even - or especially - in the most hysterical and rabid passages. The present translator of London Bridge, Dominic Di Bernadi, is unable to match the fluidity of Manheim's translation and seems to have no feel for language itself. The impression is either of someone forced to translate a work they have no love for, or, someone translating into a language which is not their first from a language which also is not their first. The translator's introdution implies the former. In the introduction he feels it necessary to justify the very fact that he is translating Celine at all. At the moment though, this is the only translation of London Bridge available and worth reading for those who have read Guignol's Band Part One and are interested in Celine. Worth reading... but only until a better translation comes along, which, hopefully, won't be too long as Fable For Another Time has recently been released in a wonderful translation which matches the quality of Manheim.

Brilliant writer, 10 Aug 2000
I have reviewed his classic "Journey to the End of the Night" and have no wish to repeat myself but the man is a genius story teller..always a ranting autobiographical descent into a pessimistic,cynical view of life....thoroughly warranted judging by his own life experience....the man must be the best novelist of the 20th century..many people would agree with this who know far better than I do all the various styles and writers that have filled the literary columns...but just read one page to get the flavour..you will be drawn into the spell of his emotional "transposition" as he puts it...just brilliant brilliant stuff.....it is , as I say perhaps his best novel..although "Journey" comes close...he gets "better" with every novel but death on credit is the one to choose out of the whole let to get the real Celinian flavour.....

Brilliant., 24 Sep 2006
This is a wonderful translation to match the fluidity and cadence of Ralph Manheim's translations of Celine. As far as I am concerned Fable is, arguably, Celine's greatest work. The narrative leaps wherever and whenever Celine is inclined to lift it; to his childhood in Paris, to the First World War, to London, to his experiences during the Second World War, to his treatment afterwards, to descriptions of old friends, enemies, publishers. It contains references to locations and characters familiar to readers of his previous work and also anticipates elements of the novels written after Fable, in fact, almost as though they were remembered before the fact. And ever present, no matter how grim the scene under description, is Celine's constant sense of humour. It is as though he were standing apart from his life, laughing at himself, at the absurdity of the situations he found himself a part of, and also, laughing at his own anger and rage.

Worth Reading.., 01 Oct 2008
Epic, descriptive, but large portions of not much unfortunately.
Miller did better with "cancer.." though celine came first and was highly influential.
Concerning his time abroad but mainly in France. Its worth reading but wont blow yer mind if youve already read Kafka/Miller and others..

Slimy goodness for the stinking proletariat, open your maws and eat literature!, 05 Aug 2006
To read books like Journey or Death on Credit to works like Ulysses is to think of the sound the words make in your mind. Read them aloud inside your head and the reading becomes easy, let the language move, like lyrics in a song. Ulysses is a positive expression of mans existence and Celines view is the opposite. Celine verbal ballet is perhaps not for everyone, in later works he sounds like a irritable grumpy old man, whose own failings are blamed on everyone else; it becomes a tedious tune to listen to. Nihilistic self-disgust and a hatred of the human condition can only be fun for so long, before it turns to poison. As a man he was probably a loathsome little creep, involved in the Vichy regime, it seems he wanted to blacken and char his reputation; so others would loath him as much as he did. His ego let him down, but in the process it created a very interesting literary legacy. Okay, this is an over-simplistic review (hey, this is an amazon amateur review for the unwashed masses), but I hope you get the drift, this is a difficult book, but essentially worth the effort to consume over 400 pages. Most books that go on for this long could have done with some editing, this is no different, but it seems to fit with Celines personality. All diatribes tend to go on for too long.It is Celine that is at the heart of this novel, deep down it's all about Celine. Celine against the world. This is not to say the books are not without some human decency or a clever sense of humour. There is a charred humour here.
Then add the hindsight that this author would side with a political regime that sided with those who committed acts of evil on a monumental scale, a man whose beliefs damned him.

I recommend other authors if you like Celine. Picaresque novels like Cervantes work, Rabelais ouvre, Blaise Cendrars work like Gold or Moravagine. Knut Hamsun- Hunger. Nonsense like Flicker by Theodore Roszak (apparently now being made into a film by Darren Aronofsky...)

Other novels not related to Celine I'd recommend if you liked the previous list:
Jan Potocki "The Manuscript Found In Saragossa". I love this book dearly, as I do Life: A Users Manual by George Perec.The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza

Picaresque Crime Fiction: David Peace: his Red Riding quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, a queasy epic of ugly times and ugly people. A vision of Hell sketched around real events in Yorkshire. If you like James Ellroy, you like this just as much.

Irrefutable, 20 Mar 2006
This books is an opus of the last century, and in truth is the finest book I have read. Issues of style, content and humanity all make this one of the best books.
Celines voyage commences in darkness and remains in darkness but the slivers of hope and insight he offers are astounding.

Refreshing, 19 Oct 2005
I live in Ireland in 2005, it's funny how our own corrupt, drunken, unsympathetic and acquisitive little country bears no fundamental difference from the world as described by Celine. Far from being depressed by this knowledge I find it liberating, I am confirmed in my view that human nature remains constant, change is slow and the semblance of civilisation is but a illusion manufactured and promulgated by a weak and spineless media.

Hubris, 17 Jul 2004
To imagine that we have somehow "transcended" the deathly message of "Journey" ... that we have, in the intervening years since its writing, outgrown its critique ... that we are 'better than that now' ... truly is a self-deluding but completely unsurprising state of affairs.

Celine transfixes the ugly, petty, ignorant cant & hypocrisy of human intercourse ... most people won't enjoy the experience ... as the man writes: "life consists of madness spiked with lies ... the truth is inedible" ...

Celine's great & furious disappointment [read "Fable For Another Time"], is that his collaboration with the Nazis let us off the hook ... we need no longer take his vision seriously ... no, not much.

Dynamite, 05 Mar 1999
The only novels I've ever read that are better are "Huckleberry Finn" and Celine's "Death on the Installment Plan." This book is far better than "Journey to the End of Night" and slightly more endearing than "Castle to Castle." A masterpiece of "social criticism," set against the dying days of Nazi Germany, but applicable to anywhere, any time. Read only the Manheim translation.

A fine depiction of life under the reich., 09 Jan 1998
This novel about Celine's ordeal under nazi germany is a hyperhectic account about his travails & sacrifices dealing with people & places which are no better off than him.What is striking & humorous about this frenetic narrative is how he is able to bring a whole world war & its inhabitants into his hands & unloads them into a style & survivalist frame of mind that is entirely his own.Though not containing the depth & numerous brilliance of journey & death,what this novel has is the consistency that leads to a rough & jumpy ride all the way through.The beginning may be stiff,but it loosens to economic brilliance shortly afterwards.

a rave., 19 Sep 1997
Without reservation I recommend this book to everyone. Celine is the seminal author of the 20th century. No one else even comes close. And North is his masterpiece. He invented the three dot narrative style that, once read, ruins you for wordy mediocrity of other writers. The style and the prose and the dark, but oh-so-true philosophy leave you breathless. You become a Celine fanatic and spend the rest of your life searching out everything he ever wrote. And check out his cat, Bebert, one of the most fascinating animals in literature. Read Celine to learn how to write. Authors like Vonnegut, Mailer and Bellow all agree he is without peer. Read North. Read the entire corpus of Celine's works. Then spend the rest of your life re-reading Celine.

Relentless monology of high enery driven cynical observation, 07 Feb 1997
Immediately the reader is swept away in a cascading avalanche of thought driven by the sight of the end of a world that was slowly sinking into insanity. Nazi Germany, the allied bombings, and the constant struggle to survive one more minute in a village where life was determined by food rations and an out of control Gestapo. The book pulses with such energy making it hard to put down. Simply mind opening to a unique literary style!

Celine, still running from bombs, finds himself a nazi docto, 04 Jan 1997
Perpetually running from the perils of war, Destouches finds himself acting as collaborator in WWII.. a nazi doctor, routed around in confusion, &, as always, trying simply to save his own skin. This Dalkey Archive edition comes complete with a glossary of historical references.

Forget what you've heard about him writing only two good books, read this: "...whenever they get a chance, never fear, people make you waste hours and months...they use you as a wall to bounce their bullshit off of...blah! and blah! and blahblahblah!...you put up with it for an hour, you'll need two weeks to recover...blah! blah!...hitch a thoroughbred to a plow, it'll take him a month, two months, to get back in his stride...if he ever does...the same can happen to you for trying to be nice, for listening..."

The importance of the translator., 10 May 2006
This edition of London Bridge is part two of Guignol's Band but, whereas the widely available edition of part one was translated by Ralph Manhiem, London Bridge wasn't. For anyone familiar with Celine in the translations of Manheim they will miss not only the wonderful rhythm of the language but the dark humour and beauty which is evident in so many passages, even - or especially - in the most hysterical and rabid passages. The present translator of London Bridge, Dominic Di Bernadi, is unable to match the fluidity of Manheim's translation and seems to have no feel for language itself. The impression is either of someone forced to translate a work they have no love for, or, someone translating into a language which is not their first from a language which also is not their first. The translator's introdution implies the former. In the introduction he feels it necessary to justify the very fact that he is translating Celine at all. At the moment though, this is the only translation of London Bridge available and worth reading for those who have read Guignol's Band Part One and are interested in Celine. Worth reading... but only until a better translation comes along, which, hopefully, won't be too long as Fable For Another Time has recently been released in a wonderful translation which matches the quality of Manheim.

Brilliant writer, 10 Aug 2000
I have reviewed his classic "Journey to the End of the Night" and have no wish to repeat myself but the man is a genius story teller..always a ranting autobiographical descent into a pessimistic,cynical view of life....thoroughly warranted judging by his own life experience....the man must be the best novelist of the 20th century..many people would agree with this who know far better than I do all the various styles and writers that have filled the literary columns...but just read one page to get the flavour..you will be drawn into the spell of his emotional "transposition" as he puts it...just brilliant brilliant stuff.....it is , as I say perhaps his best novel..although "Journey" comes close...he gets "better" with every novel but death on credit is the one to choose out of the whole let to get the real Celinian flavour.....

Brilliant., 24 Sep 2006
This is a wonderful translation to match the fluidity and cadence of Ralph Manheim's translations of Celine. As far as I am concerned Fable is, arguably, Celine's greatest work. The narrative leaps wherever and whenever Celine is inclined to lift it; to his childhood in Paris, to the First World War, to London, to his experiences during the Second World War, to his treatment afterwards, to descriptions of old friends, enemies, publishers. It contains references to locations and characters familiar to readers of his previous work and also anticipates elements of the novels written after Fable, in fact, almost as though they were remembered before the fact. And ever present, no matter how grim the scene under description, is Celine's constant sense of humour. It is as though he were standing apart from his life, laughing at himself, at the absurdity of the situations he found himself a part of, and also, laughing at his own anger and rage.

Céline continues his hate parade, 17 Aug 2000
Dr. Louis-Ferdinand "Céline" Detouches later conversational style of writing belied the distance he felt from his dwindling readers at this later stage in his life. Still with the same pessimism which started with his bestseller 'Journey to the End of the Night' ( " Of all my books (the Journey) is the only really vicious one" - 1952), 'Castle to Castle' evolved into an almost Beatesque book, stretching train of thought to it's breaking point. At points, it in quite unbearable to witnessthe limits which Céline endured to collaborate with the Naz's, and his fear of returning to his native France as a traitor, for which the inevitable trial at the end of the war, he once again blamed the Journey for raising his profile, and portaying him as left wing ( "You'll say: but it's not the Journey! It's your crimes that are killing you, The Journey has nothing to do with it." - 1952). For the first quarter of the book, Céline is content to talk about whatever he wishes, current events, his absensce of a car, his lack of money, readers, patients. But mostle his publishers, whose wealth he despises for the contrast with his own. His imprisonment and its subsequent fine left he and his second wife virtually penniless, and he details his struggle to retain his doctorship and his talks with friends lecturing him on how to regain his former glory. But his determination to keep his French pride leaves him with nothing but fury for all those who ruined him, including the absent readers and fellow writers. Without warning he slips between the Castles of the war, populated by the dregs of Nazi society, spooked grotesques inhumanly wading through urine, debachery and pestilence for fear of the approaching explosions and the troops they bear. Despite his high education and background, Céline like to associate himself as being the common man. A friend in the book explains, "If only you wrote how you spoke!" - an idea too pretentious in Céline's mind to contemplate. He has a truly origional voice to put to a chamber of horrors which has remained festering, a part of the war in which Céline finds sympathy for, the darkest parts of this Gormenghast castle. A truly breath taking, tortuous and unique book.

Destruction in Grand Eloquence, 27 Mar 1998
Castle is a book that Celine felt he had to write before he died,...in it he describes his flight from France in 1944 and engages the reader with the last vision of the dying Vichy government in exile...Celine is humorous and even shows a hint of redemption for the destructive behavior of man that produced World War 2...

Stimulation From Start To Finish., 26 Mar 1998
This,the first in the trilogy which depicts the author'sexperiences during the last WW,is a wacky gut-spilling,bile gritting narrative on Celine's situation as he humorously & matter of factly relates his ordeal centered at a castle with the inhabitants there.His style in doing so:3-dot spiteroons;interjections between story lines that may surprise the unsuspecting reader;& coagulations of the story's narrative with personal thoughts from out of the blue.The crude,free form technique which has spawned numerous bastard writers is brilliantly expressed here once again.His boundless imagination & endless ideas for lashing out at people are intoxicating & admirable the least.In fact,the first 120 pages are all but scathing & brutal,if I should say heinous attacks on his opponents;& so brilliantly amusing that you wouldnt know who to feel sorry for.A man "unjustly" persecuted in his own lifetime,the pathological tales of persecution in this novel border at times on the fantastic to the point that it's quite difficult to tell whether one should believe it or not.The novel is a bit tough on the read;a few of his slang & offhand remarks demand digestible consumptions once in a while.And the childish spurts of humor that jump at times can be cute or funny,but in continous instances can be a wee bit tiring.All said,one of the best works from probably the most realistically revolutionary & most truthfully influential novelist of the 20th Century.The work of a genius.

How fond of Celine are you?, 30 Jan 1998
This author changed the way I look at literature with _Journey to the End of the Night_, and I was hooked. I've read all the Celine I can get my hands on. _Castle to Castle_ is written in Celine's trademark style, and covers the later days of World War II, when Celine was living under Nazi "protection" with his wife and cat. The fury is still there, as well as some scenarios that prove he hasn't lost his touch by any means, but Celine spends an inordinate amount of time and energy COMPLAINING. Everybody's after him, he's constantly ill-treated, he gets no respect... and now, in his twilight years, he's fed up. He uses this book to launch lengthy, frequent, and tiresome attacks on his publishers. These tirades are funny to a point, but it's also sad to see a great mind devoting so much energy to such unworthy and uninteresting targets. If you like Celine's style, can handle his facist sympathizing, and are willing to endure endless litanies of the literary and critical injustices he's endured in order to read about the more interesting social and physical ones, this book is worth your time, but it does little justice to a master prose stylist and a legitimate social critic.

Worth Reading.., 01 Oct 2008
Epic, descriptive, but large portions of not much unfortunately.
Miller did better with "cancer.." though celine came first and was highly influential.
Concerning his time abroad but mainly in France. Its worth reading but wont blow yer mind if youve already read Kafka/Miller and others..

Slimy goodness for the stinking proletariat, open your maws and eat literature!, 05 Aug 2006
To read books like Journey or Death on Credit to works like Ulysses is to think of the sound the words make in your mind. Read them aloud inside your head and the reading becomes easy, let the language move, like lyrics in a song. Ulysses is a positive expression of mans existence and Celines view is the opposite. Celine verbal ballet is perhaps not for everyone, in later works he sounds like a irritable grumpy old man, whose own failings are blamed on everyone else; it becomes a tedious tune to listen to. Nihilistic self-disgust and a hatred of the human condition can only be fun for so long, before it turns to poison. As a man he was probably a loathsome little creep, involved in the Vichy regime, it seems he wanted to blacken and char his reputation; so others would loath him as much as he did. His ego let him down, but in the process it created a very interesting literary legacy. Okay, this is an over-simplistic review (hey, this is an amazon amateur review for the unwashed masses), but I hope you get the drift, this is a difficult book, but essentially worth the effort to consume over 400 pages. Most books that go on for this long could have done with some editing, this is no different, but it seems to fit with Celines personality. All diatribes tend to go on for too long.It is Celine that is at the heart of this novel, deep down it's all about Celine. Celine against the world. This is not to say the books are not without some human decency or a clever sense of humour. There is a charred humour here.
Then add the hindsight that this author would side with a political regime that sided with those who committed acts of evil on a monumental scale, a man whose beliefs damned him.

I recommend other authors if you like Celine. Picaresque novels like Cervantes work, Rabelais ouvre, Blaise Cendrars work like Gold or Moravagine. Knut Hamsun- Hunger. Nonsense like Flicker by Theodore Roszak (apparently now being made into a film by Darren Aronofsky...)

Other novels not related to Celine I'd recommend if you liked the previous list:
Jan Potocki "The Manuscript Found In Saragossa". I love this book dearly, as I do Life: A Users Manual by George Perec.The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza

Picaresque Crime Fiction: David Peace: his Red Riding quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, a queasy epic of ugly times and ugly people. A vision of Hell sketched around real events in Yorkshire. If you like James Ellroy, you like this just as much.

Irrefutable, 20 Mar 2006
This books is an opus of the last century, and in truth is the finest book I have read. Issues of style, content and humanity all make this one of the best books.
Celines voyage commences in darkness and remains in darkness but the slivers of hope and insight he offers are astounding.

Refreshing, 19 Oct 2005
I live in Ireland in 2005, it's funny how our own corrupt, drunken, unsympathetic and acquisitive little country bears no fundamental difference from the world as described by Celine. Far from being depressed by this knowledge I find it liberating, I am confirmed in my view that human nature remains constant, change is slow and the semblance of civilisation is but a illusion manufactured and promulgated by a weak and spineless media.

Hubris, 17 Jul 2004
To imagine that we have somehow "transcended" the deathly message of "Journey" ... that we have, in the intervening years since its writing, outgrown its critique ... that we are 'better than that now' ... truly is a self-deluding but completely unsurprising state of affairs.

Celine transfixes the ugly, petty, ignorant cant & hypocrisy of human intercourse ... most people won't enjoy the experience ... as the man writes: "life consists of madness spiked with lies ... the truth is inedible" ...

Celine's great & furious disappointment [read "Fable For Another Time"], is that his collaboration with the Nazis let us off the hook ... we need no longer take his vision seriously ... no, not much.

Dynamite, 05 Mar 1999
The only novels I've ever read that are better are "Huckleberry Finn" and Celine's "Death on the Installment Plan." This book is far better than "Journey to the End of Night" and slightly more endearing than "Castle to Castle." A masterpiece of "social criticism," set against the dying days of Nazi Germany, but applicable to anywhere, any time. Read only the Manheim translation.

A fine depiction of life under the reich., 09 Jan 1998
This novel about Celine's ordeal under nazi germany is a hyperhectic account about his travails & sacrifices dealing with people & places which are no better off than him.What is striking & humorous about this frenetic narrative is how he is able to bring a whole world war & its inhabitants into his hands & unloads them into a style & survivalist frame of mind that is entirely his own.Though not containing the depth & numerous brilliance of journey & death,what this novel has is the consistency that leads to a rough & jumpy ride all the way through.The beginning may be stiff,but it loosens to economic brilliance shortly afterwards.

a rave., 19 Sep 1997
Without reservation I recommend this book to everyone. Celine is the seminal author of the 20th century. No one else even comes close. And North is his masterpiece. He invented the three dot narrative style that, once read, ruins you for wordy mediocrity of other writers. The style and the prose and the dark, but oh-so-true philosophy leave you breathless. You become a Celine fanatic and spend the rest of your life searching out everything he ever wrote. And check out his cat, Bebert, one of the most fascinating animals in literature. Read Celine to learn how to write. Authors like Vonnegut, Mailer and Bellow all agree he is without peer. Read North. Read the entire corpus of Celine's works. Then spend the rest of your life re-reading Celine.

Relentless monology of high enery driven cynical observation, 07 Feb 1997
Immediately the reader is swept away in a cascading avalanche of thought driven by the sight of the end of a world that was slowly sinking into insanity. Nazi Germany, the allied bombings, and the constant struggle to survive one more minute in a village where life was determined by food rations and an out of control Gestapo. The book pulses with such energy making it hard to put down. Simply mind opening to a unique literary style!

Celine, still running from bombs, finds himself a nazi docto, 04 Jan 1997
Perpetually running from the perils of war, Destouches finds himself acting as collaborator in WWII.. a nazi doctor, routed around in confusion, &, as always, trying simply to save his own skin. This Dalkey Archive edition comes complete with a glossary of historical references.

Forget what you've heard about him writing only two good books, read this: "...whenever they get a chance, never fear, people make you waste hours and months...they use you as a wall to bounce their bullshit off of...blah! and blah! and blahblahblah!...you put up with it for an hour, you'll need two weeks to recover...blah! blah!...hitch a thoroughbred to a plow, it'll take him a month, two months, to get back in his stride...if he ever does...the same can happen to you for trying to be nice, for listening..."

The importance of the translator., 10 May 2006
This edition of London Bridge is part two of Guignol's Band but, whereas the widely available edition of part one was translated by Ralph Manhiem, London Bridge wasn't. For anyone familiar with Celine in the translations of Manheim they will miss not only the wonderful rhythm of the language but the dark humour and beauty which is evident in so many passages, even - or especially - in the most hysterical and rabid passages. The present translator of London Bridge, Dominic Di Bernadi, is unable to match the fluidity of Manheim's translation and seems to have no feel for language itself. The impression is either of someone forced to translate a work they have no love for, or, someone translating into a language which is not their first from a language which also is not their first. The translator's introdution implies the former. In the introduction he feels it necessary to justify the very fact that he is translating Celine at all. At the moment though, this is the only translation of London Bridge available and worth reading for those who have read Guignol's Band Part One and are interested in Celine. Worth reading... but only until a better translation comes along, which, hopefully, won't be too long as Fable For Another Time has recently been released in a wonderful translation which matches the quality of Manheim.

Brilliant writer, 10 Aug 2000
I have reviewed his classic "Journey to the End of the Night" and have no wish to repeat myself but the man is a genius story teller..always a ranting autobiographical descent into a pessimistic,cynical view of life....thoroughly warranted judging by his own life experience....the man must be the best novelist of the 20th century..many people would agree with this who know far better than I do all the various styles and writers that have filled the literary columns...but just read one page to get the flavour..you will be drawn into the spell of his emotional "transposition" as he puts it...just brilliant brilliant stuff.....it is , as I say perhaps his best novel..although "Journey" comes close...he gets "better" with every novel but death on credit is the one to choose out of the whole let to get the real Celinian flavour.....

Brilliant., 24 Sep 2006
This is a wonderful translation to match the fluidity and cadence of Ralph Manheim's translations of Celine. As far as I am concerned Fable is, arguably, Celine's greatest work. The narrative leaps wherever and whenever Celine is inclined to lift it; to his childhood in Paris, to the First World War, to London, to his experiences during the Second World War, to his treatment afterwards, to descriptions of old friends, enemies, publishers. It contains references to locations and characters familiar to readers of his previous work and also anticipates elements of the novels written after Fable, in fact, almost as though they were remembered before the fact. And ever present, no matter how grim the scene under description, is Celine's constant sense of humour. It is as though he were standing apart from his life, laughing at himself, at the absurdity of the situations he found himself a part of, and also, laughing at his own anger and rage.

Céline continues his hate parade, 17 Aug 2000
Dr. Louis-Ferdinand "Céline" Detouches later conversational style of writing belied the distance he felt from his dwindling readers at this later stage in his life. Still with the same pessimism which started with his bestseller 'Journey to the End of the Night' ( " Of all my books (the Journey) is the only really vicious one" - 1952), 'Castle to Castle' evolved into an almost Beatesque book, stretching train of thought to it's breaking point. At points, it in quite unbearable to witnessthe limits which Céline endured to collaborate with the Naz's, and his fear of returning to his native France as a traitor, for which the inevitable trial at the end of the war, he once again blamed the Journey for raising his profile, and portaying him as left wing ( "You'll say: but it's not the Journey! It's your crimes that are killing you, The Journey has nothing to do with it." - 1952). For the first quarter of the book, Céline is content to talk about whatever he wishes, current events, his absensce of a car, his lack of money, readers, patients. But mostle his publishers, whose wealth he despises for the contrast with his own. His imprisonment and its subsequent fine left he and his second wife virtually penniless, and he details his struggle to retain his doctorship and his talks with friends lecturing him on how to regain his former glory. But his determination to keep his French pride leaves him with nothing but fury for all those who ruined him, including the absent readers and fellow writers. Without warning he slips between the Castles of the war, populated by the dregs of Nazi society, spooked grotesques inhumanly wading through urine, debachery and pestilence for fear of the approaching explosions and the troops they bear. Despite his high education and background, Céline like to associate himself as being the common man. A friend in the book explains, "If only you wrote how you spoke!" - an idea too pretentious in Céline's mind to contemplate. He has a truly origional voice to put to a chamber of horrors which has remained festering, a part of the war in which Céline finds sympathy for, the darkest parts of this Gormenghast castle. A truly breath taking, tortuous and unique book.

Destruction in Grand Eloquence, 27 Mar 1998
Castle is a book that Celine felt he had to write before he died,...in it he describes his flight from France in 1944 and engages the reader with the last vision of the dying Vichy government in exile...Celine is humorous and even shows a hint of redemption for the destructive behavior of man that produced World War 2...

Stimulation From Start To Finish., 26 Mar 1998
This,the first in the trilogy which depicts the author'sexperiences during the last WW,is a wacky gut-spilling,bile gritting narrative on Celine's situation as he humorously & matter of factly relates his ordeal centered at a castle with the inhabitants there.His style in doing so:3-dot spiteroons;interjections between story lines that may surprise the unsuspecting reader;& coagulations of the story's narrative with personal thoughts from out of the blue.The crude,free form technique which has spawned numerous bastard writers is brilliantly expressed here once again.His boundless imagination & endless ideas for lashing out at people are intoxicating & admirable the least.In fact,the first 120 pages are all but scathing & brutal,if I should say heinous attacks on his opponents;& so brilliantly amusing that you wouldnt know who to feel sorry for.A man "unjustly" persecuted in his own lifetime,the pathological tales of persecution in this novel border at times on the fantastic to the point that it's quite difficult to tell whether one should believe it or not.The novel is a bit tough on the read;a few of his slang & offhand remarks demand digestible consumptions once in a while.And the childish spurts of humor that jump at times can be cute or funny,but in continous instances can be a wee bit tiring.All said,one of the best works from probably the most realistically revolutionary & most truthfully influential novelist of the 20th Century.The work of a genius.

How fond of Celine are you?, 30 Jan 1998
This author changed the way I look at literature with _Journey to the End of the Night_, and I was hooked. I've read all the Celine I can get my hands on. _Castle to Castle_ is written in Celine's trademark style, and covers the later days of World War II, when Celine was living under Nazi "protection" with his wife and cat. The fury is still there, as well as some scenarios that prove he hasn't lost his touch by any means, but Celine spends an inordinate amount of time and energy COMPLAINING. Everybody's after him, he's constantly ill-treated, he gets no respect... and now, in his twilight years, he's fed up. He uses this book to launch lengthy, frequent, and tiresome attacks on his publishers. These tirades are funny to a point, but it's also sad to see a great mind devoting so much energy to such unworthy and uninteresting targets. If you like Celine's style, can handle his facist sympathizing, and are willing to endure endless litanies of the literary and critical injustices he's endured in order to read about the more interesting social and physical ones, this book is worth your time, but it does little justice to a master prose stylist and a legitimate social critic.

Brilliant writer, 10 Aug 2000
I have reviewed his classic "Journey to the End of the Night" and have no wish to repeat myself but the man is a genius story teller..always a ranting autobiographical descent into a pessimistic,cynical view of life....thoroughly warranted judging by his own life experience....the man must be the best novelist of the 20th century..many people would agree with this who know far better than I do all the various styles and writers that have filled the literary columns...but just read one page to get the flavour..you will be drawn into the spell of his emotional "transposition" as he puts it...just brilliant brilliant stuff.....it is , as I say perhaps his best novel..although "Journey" comes close...he gets "better" with every novel but death on credit is the one to choose out of the whole let to get the real Celinian flavour.....

Worth Reading.., 01 Oct 2008
Epic, descriptive, but large portions of not much unfortunately.
Miller did better with "cancer.." though celine came first and was highly influential.
Concerning his time abroad but mainly in France. Its worth reading but wont blow yer mind if youve already read Kafka/Miller and others..

Slimy goodness for the stinking proletariat, open your maws and eat literature!, 05 Aug 2006
To read books like Journey or Death on Credit to works like Ulysses is to think of the sound the words make in your mind. Read them aloud inside your head and the reading becomes easy, let the language move, like lyrics in a song. Ulysses is a positive expression of mans existence and Celines view is the opposite. Celine verbal ballet is perhaps not for everyone, in later works he sounds like a irritable grumpy old man, whose own failings are blamed on everyone else; it becomes a tedious tune to listen to. Nihilistic self-disgust and a hatred of the human condition can only be fun for so long, before it turns to poison. As a man he was probably a loathsome little creep, involved in the Vichy regime, it seems he wanted to blacken and char his reputation; so others would loath him as much as he did. His ego let him down, but in the process it created a very interesting literary legacy. Okay, this is an over-simplistic review (hey, this is an amazon amateur review for the unwashed masses), but I hope you get the drift, this is a difficult book, but essentially worth the effort to consume over 400 pages. Most books that go on for this long could have done with some editing, this is no different, but it seems to fit with Celines personality. All diatribes tend to go on for too long.It is Celine that is at the heart of this novel, deep down it's all about Celine. Celine against the world. This is not to say the books are not without some human decency or a clever sense of humour. There is a charred humour here.
Then add the hindsight that this author would side with a political regime that sided with those who committed acts of evil on a monumental scale, a man whose beliefs damned him.

I recommend other authors if you like Celine. Picaresque novels like Cervantes work, Rabelais ouvre, Blaise Cendrars work like Gold or Moravagine. Knut Hamsun- Hunger. Nonsense like Flicker by Theodore Roszak (apparently now being made into a film by Darren Aronofsky...)

Other novels not related to Celine I'd recommend if you liked the previous list:
Jan Potocki "The Manuscript Found In Saragossa". I love this book dearly, as I do Life: A Users Manual by George Perec.The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza

Picaresque Crime Fiction: David Peace: his Red Riding quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, a queasy epic of ugly times and ugly people. A vision of Hell sketched around real events in Yorkshire. If you like James Ellroy, you like this just as much.

Irrefutable, 20 Mar 2006
This books i