Guignol's Band: Novel

If you are a fan of Celine you have to read Guignol's Band. It may not be his very best and it's not the book I would recommend to someone reading Celine for the first time, for that I recommend Journey to the end of the Night or Death on the Instalment Plan, but it's essential reading for those who love Celine. One warning though Guignol's Band is not a complete novel, it is the first quarter of a novel that is finished in London Bridge. Apparently Celine was under pressure from his publisher to release something quickly and he makes it clear from page one that this is just part one, so buy this book with London Bridge.

Exceeded my expectations.

It's almost impossible to break Celine's works down into the usual category of "books." Basically everything he wrote, his entire oevre, is one metabook. If you want to get sequential, start with Death on the Istallment Plan and work your way up from there. DOTIP deals in large part with "Ferdinand's" childhood and we are treated to descriptions of a surreal upbringing (an entire neighborhood enclosed in soot-encrusted glass, a mother and father depicted as slightly less than imebeciles). I would then suggest reading Journey to the End of the Night (primarily about WW1 and his trip to America), Guignol's Band, London Bridge (Guignol's Band II), Rigadoon, Castle to Castle and North. All have been well translated. Don't be put off by puffy readers who say that these texts can only be appreciated in French. This is one author who comes through loud and clear (probably just as biting and clever in Swahili) in translation. Celine deals in high comedy and his novels move at the pace of a Mack Sennet or Charlie Chaplin film. The energy is always frenetic and he seldom allows you any lulls. The descriptions in this book of "The Leicester Boarding House," lorded over by Cascade, Dr. Clodovitz, the wounded-in-the-ass Joconde, Boro - master of the keyboards, but most of all Titus Von Claben, will leave you howling if Celine strikes a responsive chord. If he doesn't, then you have a different sort of sensibility than mine and should probably avoid this author at all costs. There is nothing Keilloresque about Celine. He came up out of the Paris slums and witnessed some of the most horrific scenes the 20th century produced. That he came out of it all with a sense-of-the-ridiculous intact is a marvel in itself. He was on the wrong side of most issues his entire life. He made some stupid choices. But those who maintain that he wallowed in self-pity are way off the mark. He always points to himself as his own worst culprit. He never pretends to heroism. He is, like Chaplin, always the fall-guy, but is also, in the same light, a survivor. He gets up after his prat-falls, dusts himself off and heads on towards the next chapter.

Speaking as a diehard Celine fan, and someone who still cranes his neck to hear when the word "Celine" is spoken nearby even though I know damn well they're talking about HER...Celine never wrote a bad novel, nothing even close, few writers are as consistently excellent as Celine was. However, no writer in my experience is so dependent on his translators to get him across. Since he used so many then-topical slang words in his original French, he has tried the talents of everyone who's worked to recreate his magnificent prose into another language. Fortunately for we English readers, he found the perfect translator in Ralph Manheim, a man who dug into Celine's brilliant grossness without squeamishness, and produced what I believe to be the closest we can ever get to the source. In fact, as Kurt Vonnegut has noted, since Celine wrote in such a bizarre argot it's possible that the French themselves can no longer really appreciate him like we can. (Interesting Side Note: the late Ralph Manheim also translated Hitler's "Mein Kampf", if you can get your mind around THAT one)"Guignol's Band", unfortunately, was not translated by Manheim, and it suffers considerably as a result. The translator tries his best, and with such fantastic source material it's hard to go wrong, but it's just simply a miss. Doesn't FEEL like Celine. The more recent translation of the sequel, "London Bridge", done by Dominic Di Bernardi, however, is great. Not exactly up to Manheim's genius, but very close, a wonderful spin on Celine's language.What "Guignol's Band" needs, and badly, is a new translation; preferably by Di Bernardi, but regardless by someone not afraid to plunge both hands into Celine's words. It takes pure fearlessness to handle the greatest French writer of the 20th century (and damn near the greatest in ANY language, ANY century), and until somebody steps up to this plate, "Guignol's Band" will sadly remain one of Louis-Ferdinand Celine's lesser works.

There isn't much of a story here, but presumably you aren't expecting that from Celine. Set in London, so nice for a Londoner like me - I enjoy Celine's flexible geography. He capture's the spirit of London at that time convincingly, and refreshingly nothing much has changed in many ways.There are some incredible moments in this book, but overall not as good as Journey... read that first, take a few years out and then try this.What I can say is that the opening chapter is so intense I barely breathed through the whole thing. A masterclass in depicting the chaos of war. Absolutely stunning.I have a lot of affection for this book. Like you might have for a mad aunt who smells.

great read - especially if you leave in London