1932
Journey to the End of the Night
Louis-Ferdinand Céline · 1894–1961 · France
Originally Voyage au bout de la nuit (French)
Why it matters
A cynical drifter stumbles through the First World War, colonial Africa, and industrial America in a voice of raw, exclamatory slang. Céline broke French literary prose open, for better and (given his later politics) for worse.
At a glance
war novelpicaresqueexistentialist
Difficulty 6/10fast pace450 pagesRaw, exclamatory slang-inflected prose that breaks with literary convention.
Deep dive
A cynical draft dodger tours the twentieth century's worst inventions — war, colonialism, factory labor, American consumerism — and finds nothing on the other side of any of them worth the trip.
Where to go next
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António Lobo Antunes · 1979The Land at the End of the WorldLvl 8Slow burn
André Malraux · 1933Man's FateLvl 6Medium pace
Raymond Queneau · 1959Zazie in the MetroLvl 5Fast paced
Albert Camus · 1942The StrangerLvl 3Medium pace
Jules Verne · 1870Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaLvl 3Medium pace