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 (eventually 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 all 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 writtenin 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 evenin 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 all 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 hummingin 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 Installment Plan is nonetheless a wonderful example of the essence of Celine. The portrait of the young Fernand's childhoodin working-class Paris slums is shatteringin its filth & despair, but one gets the feeling that the wily young scamp likes it that way. Death on the Installment Plan approaches the pain of sexual awakening, the struggle to make a living, & the need to leave a mark with a sly wink - after all, as the author subtly reminds us, the slate is wiped cleanin the end.
