Louis-Ferdinand Céline - 1957 - Castle to Castle (359p) [Inua].epub

Title: Castle to Castle
Author: Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Introduction: Kurt Vonnegut
Series: French Literature
Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press (March 1, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 156478150X
ISBN-13: 978-1564781505

Castle to Castle is a bitter, virulent masterpiece. In it, Celine indignantly paints a portrait of the Vichy regime cowering in a castle from the regular RAF bombing runs. The characters are often well-known villains; they are just as often completely deranged about the realities of their increasingly hopeless situation.

The crumbling collaborationist regime is only the background for the main show, however: Celine's scathing misanthropy. About a fourth of it is Celine ranting about his publishers screwing him over or his jackal relatives picking through his belongings while he was being driven out for. At all times, it is sharp and humorous.

Celine is an old man when he wrote this, and it shows in the best way. His style is a bit unhinged compared to his earlier novels---he rambles and goes on tangents quite regularly. Some may find his style annoying ... one can turn to a random page and it be half ellipses. I would argue it suits him perfectly, and if anything he has improved over his career.

I highly recommend this book to Celine fans. For those new to his work, I would maybe suggest reading his earlier works (Journey to the End of the Night and Death on Credit) first, just to get used to his style and character.
-Sam Tempel

Louis-Ferdinand Celine is honestly one of the few writers who really really makes me laugh. You gotta love this French S.O.B.'s outrages. Who else has this audacity? Mama Mia!
-Alex Sydorenkoon