Céline's third novel, first published in 1944 but dealing with events
taking place during the First World War, Guignol's Band follows the
narrator's meanderings through London after he has been demobilized due
to a war injury. The result is a frank, uncompromising, yet grotesquely
funny portrayal of the English capital's seedy underworld, peopled by
prostitutes, pimps and schemers.
Often considered to be Céline's funniest work, Guignol's Band showcases
its author's idiosyncratic style at its finest, frantically blending
slang, invective, onomatopoeia with literary language, and bridging the
gap between gritty realism and absurd mysticism.