Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Book: Journey to the End of the Night

(1932)

Author: Louis-Ferdinand Celine

SOLD

Celine, all of his faults aside, was confident in his work, "Where French literature's concerned, there I'm going to be the wise man, make no mistake...I've slipped the spoken word into print. In one sole shot."

The result was staggeringly modern, this is "people's speak" something Joyce used in "The Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man". In World War I Europe with people and artists being displaced or at the face of conflict, their eyes on society were more open. It seems like as readers we want to relate to insight and vision. We look for nostalgia sure but we want to know how the dirt tastes. 

At times Celine can be barbaric and cruel, he wrote like he spoke, with little confidence in man. But that to me is the essence of a war torn France. The characters build dialogues with parts of the modern society; war theatre, industry, mental health.

I am mixed to be honest about "Journey to the End of the Night" it is crushing and intriguing, a beautiful study. It puts you at the face of a the eternal question "Is society good?" I look up to Celine for his insight and writing style while at the same time feel like he would be upset if I didn't.

He knew how good he was at what he was doing, and felt that he was the last correct answer. If the night seems to be our only relief, than perhaps we all are the last correct answers to ourselves.

With this copy of the novel I am sending out a handmade BookHook, a small chap book based on themes from the novel, and an impressionist painting.

We DO take special orders!

Met with a close friend today while working on the site at my local coffee shop who said he was looking for a book as a gift, something classic and thrilling.... I riffled through the crates and came up with this selection!

 

If there are any books you are looking for hit me up at bookpeddlercontact@gmail.com

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Book: The Old Man And The Sea

(1952)

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Price: $15 shipping included

Let's talk about our fathers. Know them or not, love them or not, there are conversations you have with them where you realizes where the blood is. Those small surprises. They have that look, and they don't recognize that they are giving it.

I am a big Hemingway fan, he is many things that I am not. Hem is strong, bold, for the lack of better language he is earnest. Big Poppa is blunt, short, he is a shotgun. I went through a period of time reading through his novels, this being my first, where I tried to match drink by drink with him. Brandy for a novel, mezcal for a novel, and so on. 

I got a phone call out of the blue from my father when I was particularly hung over one morning. Told him it was from brandy, 

"Big Poppa's medicine huh?" 

He, as a younger man was a huge Hemingway reader as well. It is interesting to find these things in the blood.

Misunderstood, mysterious and projected love is a large part of "The Old Man and the Sea". To find love in someone, lose it because of something else, and have a third thing try to rip both out of your butchered and torn hands, this is how Millennials should fight through life. In the end of the fight, you come out knowing how love really feels.

With this copy of "The Old Man And the Sea" I am including sketches from my "Old Man And the Sea Tattoo", a sharpie so you can draw your own, a small baggie of beach property, a hand made BookHook, and some salted anchovies for nourishment.

Our first sale!!

 

We are so excited and proud to have made our first sale! Late last night we got an order for any Kurt Vonnegut novel in the collection. AND I PRESENT TO YOU MISS JULIA! 

"Breakfast of Champions" 

First Dell Edition, 1974

The first Vonnegut novel I read was "Cat's Cradle" as a part of a very failed attempt at a book club. I picked this copy of BOC up while touring with a band back in the fall. It's a fun trip through the identity of not just American Culture but of humanity, and that was so much of what Vonnegut was about, Ferlinghetti said of him,"he was of my generation a generation who came of age during World War 2, and he really articulated our consciousness." 

The Language is great and candid and it includes Vonnegut's drawings throughout.

In the package I will include some personal sketches, a hand made BookHook, and a small chap book of poems on American life.

Just a reminder too, if there is a book that you are looking for, email us at bookpeddlercontact@gmail.com

New Book For Sale Tomorrow May 1st!!

Your hint... Joe Dimaggio
But don't forget... You can still buy previously featured books while they are still in stock!
...Theophilus North for example

More Free Stuff!

Order your copy of  Theophilus North today and receive a complimentary BookHook!

Theophilus North by Thornton Wilder

 

Book: Theophilus North

(1973)

Author: Thornton Wilder

(Our Town, The Bridge Over San Luis Rey)

Price: $15 shipping included

If I start with any book for this project, it serves that it should be my favorite. I found this book originally at a small bookstore along the main avenue in Manasquan New Jersey. I spent that Summer living on The Shore, making tacos, flipping burgers, on the beach and logging miles on an old Huffy Mountain Bike for romance at $8 an hour and a few free beers.

Theophilus North is the story of a school teacher who leaves behind his job in New Jersey and moves into the old Naval town of Newport, Rhode Island in 1926. There he submerges himself in the famed 7 Cities of Newport taking on odd jobs and becoming the man about town. It's trite to call the book timeless but it has grand sensibilities of Victorian Romance while relating to the writings of The Lost Generation as well. Which at the time was one of the arguments about Wilder's writing. Throughout his career his writing style shifted and was easily influenced by relationships with great writers like Gertrude Stein and  James Joyce.

This novel changed how I wanted to live. Page by page it defined how I would come to feel about leaving things behind to chase fleeting passion, building the courage to talk to as many strangers as possible, what a constellation should be, and learned what makes a member of a community.  

Along with the book I will insert a poem I have written (one of many) influenced by this novel, as well as my unfinished effort at Thornton Wilder type prose called "Julian Jail"