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Rigadoon (1997)

Rigadoon (1997)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Series
Rating
3.93 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
1564781623 (ISBN13: 9781564781628)
Language
English
Publisher
dalkey archive press

About book Rigadoon (1997)

Céline completed this final instalment in his trilogy a day before his death . . . so much for that happy retirement . . . this book (and apparently all of his novels) have a fragmented nouveau roman approach: breaking the text into unpunctuated sentences connected via ellipses . . . like this . . . and this . . . to convey the flow of thoughts and speech . . . and to do away with that bothersome process of having to . . . you know . . . polish really good sentences . . . if only Updike had done this! . . . oh he also uses exclamation points more than is healthy! . . . because Céline was not healthy! . . . he was possibly a crazy man! . . . and this book certainly doesn’t help dispel that notion! . . . I should have started with Journey to the End of the Night . . . but this was a mordantly funny and digressive . . . obviously . . . story of how the author fled to Denmark following the war . . . during which he was a Nazi sympathiser . . . as you do . . . and the more I write like this, the easier it seems to be . . . so I am less convinced Céline was a great artist . . . I suppose I should read Journey first . . . did you know if you space you ellipses . . . the way they do in novels . . . that counts as three separate words on Microsoft Word count!? . . . ooh an interrobang . . . a little tip there for students struggling to make up the word count . . . this review was sponsored by Bob’s Periods . . . dotty since 1987!

Un livre que j'ai lu une première fois il y a bien longtemps maintenant, c'était le premier ouvrage de Céline que j'abordais. Je déconseille donc formellement sa lecture avant au moins d'avoir lu "Nord" et "D'un château l'autre", ça n'aurait presque aucun intérêt. Mais maintenant que je les ai lus, j'ai bien apprécié Rigodon qui complète, qui éclaircit encore un peu les péripéties de Céline dans l'Allemagne nazi qui perd la guerre 39-45, dans une ruée vers le nord. J'adore toujours ce style si particulier de Céline, du bonheur, un génie incomparable. Néanmoins, j'ai l'impression que l'on ressent - dans ce dernier livre qui précède de très peu sa mort, plus que dans les autres de ses productions (exceptés les pamphlets évidemment) - son racisme, sa peur du métissage qui est aussi récurrente que dérangeante.

Do You like book Rigadoon (1997)?

"No syntax, no style! he doesn't say anything any more! he doesn't dare!"Ah, the turpitude! that's a shameless lie! . . . I've got oodles of style! . . . that's right! . . . what's more, I'll make the rest of them unreadable! . . . every last one of them! wilted impotents! rotten with prizes and manifestoes! I can lay my plans in all security, the epoch belongs to me! I am Literature's favorite child! anyone who doesn't imitate me is through! . . . no doubt about it! okay, let's see where we are! gutted barrels, flooded terraces and urinals! vast despair! ah, grand crosses of all the Legions, super washouts, eminent jerks! . . . I'd feel sorry for you if I could, but I can't . . . not any more! . . .The best of Celine's final trilogy... Celine is recruited to take part in a plot at Rommel's funeral... and the famous brick makes its way to the doctor's head! ... of course, this brings back all that 75% disability whining... things really kick into gear when he and Lili end up having to take care of about sixteen children... of course he refuses to count them... my god, what happens... I wouldn't have thought it possible... (view spoiler)[he gets them onto a Red Cross train posing as Swedes... probably they're all alpine skiers now... not great, but better than phosphorous! ... saved eighteen lives, if you believe it! (hide spoiler)]
—Adam McPhee

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