The mindless persistence of the libido amid so much torment becomes the book’s illustrative macabre joke ... The frenetic, staccato intensity of his writing feels original even now ... But there is so much that is soiling and stupid about this man that one begins to wonder whether it’s really worth putting in the delicate effort of separating the art from the artist.
British readers may prefer Mandell’s more measured translation ... She’s content not to look for colourful synonyms and turns of phrase, careful not to make Céline’s narrator sound any more hysterical and thereby reduce him to a comic fool ... The novella suffers in comparison to Céline’s finished books, which the author reworked tirelessly.
By all means buy this fascinating little volume, but do not expect to derive from it the pleasures usually associated with the reading of a novel ... It is an extraordinary work, hysterical in tone and demented in content. Had it been completed, it might have been a masterpiece; as it stands, or staggers, it is deeply disturbing and horribly compelling.
