Our latest baby was Death on Credit by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Loathed by some, it still managed to titillate others. The oddest thing about it should be his size though, why is the English translation three times the size of the original (French) one?
Cover illustration by Tardi -- what else can you ask for?Well... you can ask for this, a review of the time by a guy I know nothing about:
"Ce livre furieux, qui gronde, cataracte, frappe comme un bélier, on n'a jamais fini d'en faire le tour, de le mesurer. C'est une œuvre satanique, s'il est vrai que l'enfer n'est que la privation de l'espoir. C'est un grand 'Non!' vociféré à toutes les questions que pose la vie.
Céline, vous pourrez bien désormais dire et faire tout ce que vous voudrez. Vous avez donné une voix au désespoir humain."
Which roughly translates: "This furious book that growls, cracks and hits like a ram, one never manages to figure it all out. It's a satanical piece, if it is true that hell only means the deprivation of hope. It's a loud 'No!' shouted in the face of all questions raised by life. Céline, you can from now on say and do whatever you want. You gave a voice to human despair."
Pierre Scize, Ceux qui n'aiment pas Céline, Le merle blanc, 19 septembre 1936.
(Gaelle)
3 comments:
"My name's Alex, and I read 38 pages of Death on Credit". Loved the Alcoholics Anonymous-style talks we all did on it. I am determined to read more, though - mark my words!
I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5. In my heart I think it deserves a 5, yet my deluded mind says 1, so I'll give it a 3. Somewhere in there is a fantastic and original book but I only occasionally stumbled upon it and then promptly lost it again like a dog and its tail, so until I somehow pick it up again, it's a 3.
Hooray! I love the star rating system - somehow Justin has perfectly understandably given a book that he disliked so much that he felt it had put him off reading for life 3 out of 5!
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