Just read: “Journey to the End of the Night”

I’ve certainly never read anything else like this. This book follows Ferdinand from Paris to the trenches of WWI, to the Colonial African jungles, to New York, Detroit, and back to Paris. Written as somewhat of a reflection on these events, this novel is an insane, raving barrage of wonderful writing, keen social observation pertaining largely to class and power, and certain “French characteristics.”

This was by no means an easy book. The writing itself doesn’t make things easy as there is very limited dialogue (and very little of it is very coherent), the plot points are sparsely detailed, and the observations/reflections and nuanced and verbose. The content is also incredibly nihilistic about nearly all aspects of human character and action.

It is one of the most depressing books I’ve read–the other being “White Noise.” The difference being that DeLillo writes about a man coming to realize that he will die and can do nothing about it while Céline’s protagonist is keenly aware of this from the beginning and struggles to find any reason to keep on going after the music has gone.

One of the most interesting characteristics here parallels Doestoevsky’s “The Idiot” in that the protagonist struggles to get ahead despite having skills/resources because they realize that to do so necessarily requires immoral actions. Ferdinand simply cannot bring himself to charge his patients or refuse service to those he knows cannot pay. He is also unable to assist the Henrouille’s in their attempt to send a seemingly crazed mother-in-law to senior care. Ferdinand also feels some sort of affinity for Robinson who he cares for and cannot kick out despite not liking him. These traits of strong nearly Christian ethics are certainly offset by many opposing actions in his relationships.

This was an interesting one and a worthwhile read that I’ve been putting off for quite some time. It wasn’t really what I expected and took some time to get through. But I’ve glad to have read this but also glad to move on to something a little more upbeat.