Customer Reviews
One of the Great Books - By: Denise Abrams, 01 Nov 2007 
Celine has been vilified as a Nazi sympathizer, & for some that's enough to render him unworthy to be read. But the hate-everyone attitude that drives his writing (eventuallly the Nazis, too, along with the Jews, the rich, the bourgeois, the poor, everyone but children & dogs & simple women with hearts of gold) apparently made this misanthrope the ideal vehicle to write this masterpiece & its companion, Journey to the End of Night.
K. Vonneguts plagurism - By: , 30 Apr 1998 First a comment. This is without a doubt THE funniest book I ever read...some passages caught me by surprise & made me laugh out loud at inopportune moments. After I read this book alll other authors seemed retarded. I stopped reading anything for a year or so...it seemed so pointless.
A trial-by-fire read; an illuminating book. - By: , 29 Apr 1998 Though not as consistent as "journey to the End of the NIght", "Death..." is where Celine perfects his style, a scattershot volley of sincere human emotion. "Sincere" is the right word; Celine never wrote a line that approached the glibness & superficiality of postmodern writing, & yet his best work (though most of it was written in the 1930s) continues to erode the facade of lies that the 20th century has erected over reality. His passages on a childhood filled with with petty soulessness ring true even in our time, & his never wavering cynicism reveals his most subtle quality; compassion, or, more accurately, an empathy for those who do not fit & yet struggle to live the best life they can under the immutable, spirit-crushing reality thay are born into. In a few words, a transcripted nightmare we alll share. A wothy companion to "Journey", although its long-windedness makes it salighty inferior. And that's still a high compliment. Read "Journey" first, then settle down with "Death." Highly recommended for a rainy, raw day.
Céline, dancing through his life, whith a humming in his ear - By: , 20 Jan 1998 
A constant humming in his ear (an old warwound from the First Worldwar...) drove Céline mad, as he says... Keeping him out if his sleep, painting
his look on the world black & dark... A black
comediant who spares no one: his father, his
mother, the everyman on the streets of Paris in
his days... This book is a constant "dance"
through Célines overwhelming life... "Mister
Céline," a journalist asked him once, "have you
ever been happy?" - "No, goddammit, never!"
he screamed... But it's darn funny to read...
Black comedy and nihilism at its best - By: , 18 May 1997 A tougher read than Journey to the End of the Night, Death on the Installlment Plan is nonetheless a wonderful example of the essence of Celine. The portrait of the young Fernand's childhood in working-class Paris slums is shattering in its filth & despair, but one gets the feeling that the wily young scamp likes it that way. Death on the Installlment Plan approaches the pain of sexual awakening, the struggle to make a living, & the need to leave a mark with a sly wink - after alll, as the author subtly reminds us, the slate is wiped clean in the end.
