Journey to the End of the Night

By: Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Narrated by: David Colacci

Louis-Ferdinand Celine's revulsion and anger at what he considered the idiocy and hypocrisy of society explodes from nearly every minute of this novel. Filled with slang and obscenities and written in raw, colloquial language, Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of violence, cruelty, and obscene nihilism. This book shocked most critics when it was first published in France in 1932, but quickly became a success with the public in Europe, and later in America, where it was first published by New Directions in 1952. The story of the improbable, yet convincingly described travels of the petit-bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu, from the trenches of World War I, to the African jungle, to New York and Detroit, and finally to life as a failed doctor in Paris, takes the listeners by the scruff and hurtles them toward the novel's inevitable, sad conclusion.

©1952 Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Translation copyright 1983 by Ralph Manheim. Afterword copyright 2006 by William T. Vollmann (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Céline showed me that it was possible to convey things that had heretofore seemed inaccessible. " ( New York Times)

what a shame

great story but the performance is unbearable and changes the story to the like of a motorcycle hum

Classic absurdism

Celine's first novel reads like a fever dream of exquisite language. It deflty captures so much of life's absurdity and the meaningless nature of our search for meaning and purpose before we die.

A meandering Plot!

Céline's _Journey to the End of the Night_ receives 3 stars from me. While I enjoyed the book, and thought the writing was fine, I found the meandering plot boring.

This was an audio book read by David Colacci. His reading is excellent. He captures the spirit of the character, good intonation through out. I'd buy another book read by him.

The book. For me the book was great while I was listening, but it didn't stick with me when I wasn't lisentening. I enjoyed it while I was listening, but didn't think about it much when I wasn't. When I'd return to it, I'd think this is really good, why am I not listening every night. Then I'd wake up and not think about it. The character is interesting but I'm not sure he grows much, and I feel that he has no clear direction. I think perhaps this is the author's idea, and he clearly does it well.

The plot, or lack there of, is what hurts the novel the most in my opinion. The character moves from scene to scene from thing to thing without much connection to each other. Then there is Robinson, who pops up all the time and is the one other character that binds the book together. I would have like to have realized what the central conflict of the novel was. Was it man learning about self, about death? What?

Recommended: as an audio book, yes. I think it is good enough to be entertaining. I found myself thinking as I listened, wow that's kind of deep. But then I'd forget about it later.

The Ending is memorable

I had some trouble entering the mindset of the first-person narrator at the beginning, but in the end, I can appreciate why this is a classic. And it is read by the performer magnificently.
The ending is like a great painting that I will never forget. I find myself replaying that last chapter in awe as it pulls all the threads together into a cohesive whole.

Hysterical

Sarcastic, hysterical, black and beautifully insightful and narrated. I cannot imagine this book in a different, better voice.

My first Celine

I'm going to be reading the rest of his novels. I made several bookmarks throughout this read because there were phrases and ideas I never want to forget. At times I was reminded of Bukowski and Kerouac but the author having probably inspired those two, certainly has a voice all his own.

Great Performance of a great book

Colacci's rendition is cynical.and charming, seeming to perfectly capture the spirit of this work of genius, by the monstrous, depraved L-F Céline.

Third Eye Stapled Open

Hilarious and reprehensible. Celine's wit and wisdom are matched only by his misanthropy and physical cowardice. Like an eighteenth-century surgeon in an operating theater, he takes a scalpel to the human psyche and shows us the slimy putrescence within. Nietzsche said that artists necessarily misunderstand themselves; Celine is an exception, and the result is truly fascinating.

A Cynic's Odyssey

Pessimistic, vulgar, wanton, yet never flagging in energy. An unromantic look at life that ultimately sees the 'romance' of it regardless.

A classic, but not for the faint of heart...

if you want to read 20th Century French literature, the two heavyweights are Marcel Proust and Louis Ferdinand Céline. Céline writes likes he's playing Johnny Rotten to Proust's Morrissey...each page dripping with more and more contempt, spewing bile all over the nostalgic romanticism of his colleague.

The translation here seems pretty solid, but this work is probably best appreciated in its native language, as Céline wrote in a style that was extremely jarring for the time.

This book is hard to follow. There are a ton of digressions, a lot of asides about the nastiness of human nature, and what appears to be a threadbare plot tying it loosely together. Broadly, it's about a very angry and cynical man who is going nowhere in life.

The narrator delivers each line with a kind if sneering contempt that enhances the prose.