Louis Ferdinand Celine (the pseudonym of Louis Destouches) was a
famous novelist and ferocious anti-Semitic pamphleteer who rose to
fame before Hitler, but perfectly represented the fascist mind-set
that swept across Europe between 1932 and 1944. Never a Nazi
himself, he was author of Journey to the End of the Night, Death on
the Installment Plan, Guignol's Band, Homage to Zola, and a series
of "pamphlets." The latter are a potpourri of racist editorials,
ballet scenarios, and anti-Semitic confessions so violent that an
aesthete like Andre Gide thought them parodies of other
anti-Semitic literature. Little wonder the Nazis regarded Celine as
a fellow-traveler. He retreated with the Nazis across the Rhine and
sought refuge with them, first in Germany and then in Denmark. In
1951, he benefitted from an amnesty as a wounded veteran of both
World Wars. Before his death in 1961 he had regained his popularity
with the public and was regarded as a classic writer. Now that the
body of his work is in translation, Celine's fame in the literary
world circles the globe.
Celine, perhaps more than any other analysis, helps shed some
light on this enigmatic figure. It establishes his literary
importance, and, at the same time, examines his anti-Semitism.
After a final meeting, Hindus declared that "Celine is a splinter
in my mind that I've got either to absorb completely or eject
completely." The reader of this fascinating critical memoir of one
of the twentieth century's most controversial literary figures is
apt to be left with a similar dilemma.
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