Indeed, it is the novel’s thesis that–with few exceptions–baseness is all that is to be expected of man: a nihilistic conclusion that Celine reaches with relish. In the process, no vice goes unexplored: from cowardice and avarice to murder and extortion, Celine’s novel exhumes every base and reprehensible aspect of human nature. Beginning in France in World War 1, Journey‘s protaginist and Celine’s alter-ego in this semi-autobiographical novel, Ferdinand Bardemu, tracks a path of debauchery and despair through colonial Africa and post-war America, before returning back to the suburbs and sidestreets of Paris. Celine’s first novel is an unrelenting savaging of contemporary society rendered in unmistakable prose.
0 kommentar(er)
