After some twenty years or so since my last read of it, I finished Journey to the End of the Night this morning. I had started it while infected with COVID-19 as I wanted an old favorite that was familiar but that I hadn't read in a while and this fit the bill perfectly.
I love this book. The copy I have is actually my second copy - I think my first one got worn out from being loved and my third copy I gave away to a friend. This copy is also worn, though, complete with coffee stains and who knows what else.
Louis-Ferdinand Celine, the author of this book, has a unique writing style. It's almost conversational in some ways but has echoes of brilliance occasionally that can be moving. I filled up more than a page of quotes while reading this book, his first, but am only sharing a few here. If you want more, I encourage you to read the book. Or nearly any of his fictional works - they're all good in their own respective ways.
"Things are different when you go back to them, they seem to have more power to enter into us more sadly, more deeply, more gently than before, to merge with the death which is slowly, pleasantly, sneakily growing inside us, and which we train ourselves to resist a little less each day." A somber quote, to be sure, but characteristic of his tone throughout the book. He exudes a mixture of darkness with compassion. This semi-autobiographical work takes the author through military service in World War I, later service in French colonial Africa, then to America and, later, in and around Paris as he starts his medical practice. He often provided his services for free to the poor, and, although doing so frustrated him, he was still wired to try to help people where he could.
The omissions in this book are intriguing as well. He says next to nothing about the end of the World War I, and next to nothing about the circumstances of his injury in combat during the war. However, he goes into great detail about his friends and acquaintances as he crosses paths with some of them over and over. He spends much of the book not sure what he wants to do with himself, and that's something I think a lot of people can identify with if they are honest with themselves. He's motivated by that aimlessness as well as by his fear of death and his weariness of betrayal. The world is a cold and dangerous place, and one has to do one's best to survive in it. "The sadness of the world has different ways of getting to people, but it seems to succeed almost every time."
I wanted to share one more quote. This one reads as follows: "Gradually, during this ordeal by humiliation, I felt my self-respect weakening, weakening a little more, seeping away, and finally abandoning me completely, officially as it were. Say what you please, that's a beautiful moment." He felt liberty in removing himself from pretensions. It didn't make him happy, but he admired the newfound freedom.
The last three chapters of this book are purely epic. It's a wild and engaging ride through the darkness of the world and its inhabitants.
Celine's writing style is aggressive and occasionally vulgar, but, as I noted earlier, no one else quite writes like him. He is a bit of a pariah due to some pamphlets he wrote around World War II, and, although I haven't read them, I know enough to know that I don't share his views. At the same time, though, I have difficulty rejecting him entirely as a person and as an author because of them. There is a lot to be afraid of in this world, and that fear can drive people to disparate places.
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