Celine

Yeah, v good piece - read it at the time.

Inevitably some of Céline’s greatest supporters have emerged from France’s far right. The website Egalité et Reconciliation, run by Alain Soral, a former member of the Front National, accused Bourdieu of “assassinating” Céline. It said Bourdieu and leading lady Géraldine Pailhas, who plays Céline’s wife, Lucette Almenzor, were part of a “champagne socialist” set who control French cinema and members of a “band of leftwing intellectuals … a tribe whose members can be found in almost all César-winning films. They are trophy collectors.”“A half century after the disappearance of the biggest French writer ever, it’s not useful, that a film realised by the son of a self-righteous thinker... should reduce Céline to his antisemitism,” it said.

:-(

Marie Darrieussecq serving up a fine endorsement for Damian Catani's forthcoming biography of Louis-Ferdinand Céline: ‘One of the best French writers ever, who re-invented the very language of literature, and a complete SALOPARD.’ pic.twitter.com/hMe4wc8RZk

— David Hayden (@seventydys) June 29, 2021

https://lithub.com/guerre-a-louis-ferdinand-celine-manuscript-once-thought-lost-will-be-published-tomorrow-in-france/

Reading it atm !

How is it?

I read Death on the Installment Plan during my first trip to London while staying in a youth hostel. I think I read Journey to the End of the Night on a subsequent trip, but I am not certain about this. That they are explicitly excluded in the question for this thread makes me think I should read further or revisit those novels again. (Celine seems right for London because he makes me think of a more miserable version of Baudelaire, which is all I could experience of the city at the time and perhaps forever.)

Well, I'm 2/3 in and it's... Celinien !
It's unfinished and reconstructed in parts so a bit inconsistent but so far it's a powerful, carnal, dirty and vibrant testimony to WWI.
And it's pretty short.

I had a version of Death on The Installment Plan translated by Billy Childish in the late 80s. I think that's what he called it and I do like that name and I think it is the one I first heard about the book under. Seems to be more evocative than Death ON Credit. the relentless drip of a thing hanging over one incrementally and all like that. I did think that name was older anyway.

I have had a couple of other titles by the writer but I think I only read part of them. THink I had both Castle To Castle and North. Given to me by the girlfriend of the guy from whom I used to buy the posters I sold.

"That they are explicitly excluded in the question for this thread makes me think I should read further or revisit those novels again."

Not for any reason other than that these are the books that most people would've read.

Aixtc - thanks for your post. Wonder if they'll get translated anytime soon.