Journey to the end of the night post III

After having the first couple of hundred pages shared between a couple of locations – France and Africa – things change more rapidly and Ferdinand goes across America and back to France much more quickly.

Bullet points from pages 192 – 290

Having arrived in New York and escaped from his obligations on Ellis Island he drifts around the town looking for Lola and Robinson

He eventually finds Lola and in a bitter exchange manages to get $100 off her but at the cost of their friendship

Armed with the money he boards a train for Detroit and gets a job at the Ford factory

After regularly visting a brothel he strikes up a relationship with a prostitute who loves him but accepts that he is a wandering soul and can’t keep him from going back to France

Robinson turns up again wanted by the Police for using dodgy papers and he is also upset when Ferdinand heads back to France

Once back in France he completes his studies and qualifies as a doctor and sets up a practice in a poor suburb where he rarely gets paid and ends up giving out free advice

Things start to fall apart as a young patient, Bebert, catches typhoid and as he worsens so Ferdinand starts to plan to leave Rancy and move on

Robinson, or at least the fear of meeting him, causes Ferdinand great anxiety and is the cause of his change of mind and disgust with his situation

You are left wondering where he will go next of Bebert dies and he leaves Rancy. It has crept up on you but all of a sudden you care about this character and wonder what will happen next...