{"product_id":"london","title":"London","description":"\u003cp\u003eLondon centers on Ferdinand, the protagonist of Céline's\u003cem\u003e London\u003c\/em\u003e who is a gravely injured WWI soldier with a severe wound to his ear and suffers from both vertigo and the endless noise he can't stop hearing: \u003cem\u003eI caught the war in my head\u003c\/em\u003e. It's locked up inside my head. Ferdinand has earned a reprieve as well as a medal, and he has left France to join his prostitute friend Angèle in London. Despite his decoration, he nevertheless fears being sent back to the front and, in semi-hiding, takes up residence in an attic room where his pal Cantaloup runs an intense sex- trafficking operation. Colorful characters populate \u003cem\u003eLondon\u003c\/em\u003e: besides Cantaloup and Angèle, there is the generous poor Jewish doctor Yugenbitz, the corrupt cop Bijou, an eccentric English aristocrat, a slew of pimps, a rich variety of whores, and the revolutionary former bomb-maker Borokrom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLondon is also a sweeping, grand-narrative-as-funhouse-mirror of Céline's own dual profession of medicine and writing: \u003cem\u003eIt's true I was sick and in a lot of pain and so I was justified. The consolation of having found Yugenbitz and the path, and the way that he'd given me hope to understand his beautiful work, that had sort of intoxicated me, I admit. I'm a little too enthusiastic about things of the mind. I'd have liked I think to cure all human diseases, so they'd never suffer again, the bastards. We're a strange lot, if we only admit it. Fine.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48833678409933,"sku":"9780811237345","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0557\/1529\/9533\/files\/imageloader_c183522d-cfc7-46ca-9183-d1fa2416b8e0.jpg?v=1790892785","url":"https:\/\/booksatmidnight.com\/products\/london","provider":"Books At Midnight","version":"1.0","type":"link"}