Thursday, January 21, 2010

Journey to the End of the Night by Celine

Charles Bukowski referred to Journey to the End of the Night as "one of the best books written in the last two thousand years," which is what led me to seek it out a number of years ago. According to the back of the book, "Written in urgent and explosive language, Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of violence and cruelty. The story of the improbable travels of the petit-bourgeois antihero Bardamu--from the trenches of World War I, to the African jungle, to New York and the Ford factory in Detroit, and finally to life in Paris as a failed doctor--takes the reader by the scruff as it hurtles toward the novel's inescapable conclusion." Despite that rather compelling description, I find that I can't remember much about reading this book, but regardless of Celine's questionable politics, after looking over the first few pages I think I'd like to try it again sometime (sure, just add it to the list).

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