Castle to Castle

352 pp. The time is the closing of World War II; the setting is an antiquated German castle occupied by a different kind of anachronism--the government of Vichy France, a collection of terrified officials, their wives, mistresses, flunkies, and Nazi "protectors." This phantasmagorical scene becomes in the hands of the author an almost unbearably vivid picture of human society and the human condition. His tools are the rage, wit, brutal sexuality and verbal virtuosity that made Celine the master of all black humorists and underground writers.