Customer Reviews

Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic

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Arguably, Arthur Koestler was the ultimate emblematic figure of the twentieth century. He was everywhere--Hungary in the last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Palestine in the early twenties, Weimar Germany, the USSR in the 1930s, France during the "hollow years" of the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War, and Britain and the US during the Cold War. His books span an extraordinary range of fields. They are written in sparkling English, in fact his fourth language.

Apart from his exciting (sometimes all-too-exciting) life, Koestler ranks in my view as a major thinker. Having been a Communist for seven years, he thoroughly unmasked that noxious set of illusions, notably in his "Darkness at Noon," perhaps the greatest political novel ever written. The left, of course, has never forgiven Koestler's "apostasy." In addition, his scientific trilogy, with "The Act of Creation" at the center, has held up remarkably well.

Scammel's book, based on an astounding quantity of research, is by far the best account, demolishing many myths. Among these is the extreme charge that Koestler was a rapist. To be sure, he was a womanizer, but ranked far below, say, Warren Beatty in that realm.

Some have found Koestler's complex views on Israel and the Jewish role in contemporary society disturbing. Yet they are based on much relevant experience and reflection. His controversial book on the Khazars, "The Thirteenth Tribe," has a new actuality, as DNA research, which he did not know about, trickles in.

It's all in this amazing, encyclopedic work, which is truly worthy of its subject.

Schrammell wrote this book with care, leaving nothing to chance. The result is a monumental work that contextualizes an important twentieth Century intellect, Arthur Koestler.

Spread out on display for us to sample (in almost 700 pages) are the many facets of Koestler's life: the inner and outer turmoil, the brilliant and the profane, the deep and the shallow, the cowardly and the brave, the inveterate ladies man (the serial polygamist) and the insecure (mother hating) troll; both his many good and a few of his bad ideas. They are all carefully indexed and calibrated by Koestler's writings, which parallel his intellectual growth and development. They are all here in rich, carefully mined and uncovered, "living prose."

The vantage point offered here is a product of Koestler having grown up in the right places at the right time and having the right constellation of experiences. He was literally baptized in Europe's intellectual fast lane. He rose from the lowest rung of the journalism profession, to a threadbare starving novelist, and finally as a man of distinction and of letters. And throughout it all, even though he was often the "youngest and almost always the prickliest man on the block" and often the "odd man out," this "electric eel" of a man, held his own and never once was found intellectually wanting. His intellect range over such a wide range of subjects, that today, being able to do so, would never be though of. He was equally facile in discussing Quantum Physics, Political Science, Psychology or art and Anthropology. It is the depth and breath of his knowledge that makes Koestler seem like the last of the Twentieth Century Intellectual Renaissance men.

He migrated to Israel, became a Zionist and lived briefly in a Kibbutz. But later, as he did with Communism (after Stalin's "Show trials"), gave them both up. He was imprisoned by Franco in Spain, the Vichy French in France, barely escaped being caught by the Gestapo there, and served eight months in a British internment camp as a suspected communist agent and alien. He caroused with Albert Camus, Andre Malreaux, Jean Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and Simone de Bouvier, to name just a few. He interviewed Albert Einstein and published with Sigmund Freud.

After Stalin's Show trials punctured his utopian ideas about the Communist revolution, Koestler spent the rest of his life in search of the political and philosophical Holy Grail of a revolutionary political system that would not yield to the morally bankrupt "means-ends" calculus of absolute power. And although he never found it, most of his books, including his magnum opus "Darkness at Noon" were spent in search of a solution to this and similar overarching philosophical problems.

Through Schrammell, we get a voyeur's seat at the table of some of the most momentous events and decisions of the 20th Century. Without making extended detours, the author fills in many historical blanks. He does this without allowing history to clutter up or overpower his prose: Thus, this is not a history book but a book about Arthur Koestler and thus Koestler remains at the center of the author's focus. Said differently, as enticing as it may be, he does not stray down historical side roads subtracting from his main subject. Koestler was there when Franco over ran the Republican Army in Spain. He just missed being capture as the Nazis over ran France. He struggled to bring Hitler's atrocities against the Jews to the outside world. He brought to light the evils of the Communist system. And in all of this he never missed a step and never looked back.

For us Koestler lover's, one can hardly do better than this book. The story of one of the most fertile periods of history, as seen through the eyes and actions of one of the most fertile minds of the 20th Century, told by one of its keenest observers, Michael Schrammell. Ten Stars

I have just read the book about Koestler written by Michael Scammell. This book is a well-written and fascinating biography.This is simply the best book about Arthur Koestler that I have ever read and I have read a lot of books about Kostler. I have in my bookshelves eight other books about Koestler: David Cesaranis book "Arthur Koestler, John Atkins "Arthur Koestler", Mark Levenes "Arthur Koestler", George Mikes'"Arthur Koestler", Christian Buckards "Arthur Koestler - ein extremes leben", David Anderssons "Arthur Koestler", Ian Hamiltons "Koestler" and finally Michel Lavals "L'homme sans concessions". I have read them all and I find Scammels book being number one. Read it!

This biography is a compelling read because it is imaginatively written and in an entertaining manner takes the reader through the life of an extremely gifted journalist and political activist who constantly searched for the truth in himself and in the events leading up to and following WW II. I bought this book after first reading a stimulating review appearing in the Wall Street Journal and after reading Koestler's Darkness at Noon. About half way through this biography I was motivated to buy and read Koestler's Dialog with Death.This biography provides interesting insights into the Spanish civil war, the progress of WW II in Europe, the rise and fall of Communism and the birth of Israel.

If you have a day job and are limited in the amount of time you can devote to recreational reading, be prepared to spend a considerable portion of your free hours completing this voluminous biography. The rewards are many, however, particularly if you have a strong interest in twentieth century world history.

Needless-to-say, Koestler was an egocentric one-of-a kind, who lived through and experienced the full gamut of momentous social, political and literary movements--including the rise of Zionism, Nazism, Communism, existentialsm, Freudianism and all the rest. He met with notables throughout the world, escaped death and imprisonment numerous times, had innumerable sexual affairs and struggled with unending emotional tumult.

So..a lot of ground is covered, and the author does a very good job of pulling everything together and holding one's interest. The overall product is further enhanced by a sizable number of period photographs.

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) attained his greatest prominence during the 1940's and 1950's with his famous books "Darkness at Noon" and "The God that Failed." During the early cold war period, these two anti-Communist tracts proved highly influential. But as substantial an achievement as they represent, they are but a tiny dimension of Koestler's life and activities. He traveled and lived at various times all over the world: Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, Palestine/Israel, Spain during the Civil War, France (with the Sartre group), Britain, the Soviet Union, and even the U.S., and he managed to be at these locales when important historical events were unfolding. He was a highly successful novelist, playwright, and journalist. With a strong interest and background in science, Koestler also explored and wrote about this area. In his final years, he explored parapsychology: experimented with some of Timothy Leary's mushrooms and LSD; and became fascinated with ESP, levitation and telepathy. He also managed to lead the campaign against the British death penalty. Oh, did I mentioned that he was (probably) an alcoholic, as pugnacious as he was short, and so promiscuous that it was a second full-time career. Finally, after this whirlwind life, Koestler (beset by serious illnesses) and his wife close out with a double suicide in their London home.

So there is a lot packed into this excellent 550 page biography by Michael Scammell. Right from the start, we follow Koestler on an intimate basis. But there is always so much going on, that the book requires an unusual degree of concentration to fully absorb all the many activities of this unique individual. The author manages well the difficult task of integrating his subject's life with his writing, without turning this into a literary biography. Nonetheless, at the end the reader has a pretty solid understanding of what Koestler wrote and his endless range of ideas and interests. There is no getting around the fact that Koestler was not a "nice" man and seems at time constantly at war with most everyone he encounters. Given his many brushes with death, it is amazing he survived into old age at all. This is both the tale of life lived at a high level of excellence, but also almost a Greek tragedy at the same time.

The author has spent an enormous amount of time and energy in researching the biography. His 79 page "notes and sources" reflects his meticulous research, not an easy task given that Koestler spoke and wrote in a wide variety of languages. His interviews are particularly full of insight, and no stone has been left unturned in digging out scraps of information about Koestler. I found it slow going to read since it is so jam-packed; but if you want the whole story of Koestler and what he was about, this is the biography for you. Koestler was simply one of the most fascinating and amazing individuals one is likely to encounter, despite his many shortcomings. This biography will ensure that he does not disappear into the sands of time.

A well-written and thorough biography of a thinking man who placed himself at the core of many of the important political events and intellectual arguments of the last century.

Heretofore I had simply equated Arthur Koestler with "Darkness at Noon." While this linkage remains important, having read Mr. Scammell's book, I am now more fully aware of the full literary and personal life (draped with women at every turn) of this quite interesting, restless, pugnacious man of ideas.

The era in which Arthur Koestler earned his spurs as a journalist, the 1920s and 1930s, could be called the Twilight of the Democracies--a time in which one after the other European democracies collapsed in the face of militant Fascism. Despite the warnings of the Left and social democrats, governments refused to take this threat seriously--and were conquered. Among the dedicated Cassandras was Arthur Koestler, a man of Hungarian/Austrian descent, who worked for the Ullstein newspapers in Germany, as well as secretly for the Soviet Communists as a spy and propagandist.
He was one of a number of Left journalists who worked to defeat Fascism through reportage. But after a period of gullible servility to his Soviet handlers, he suddenly turned against them (a dangerous thing in those days). Thereafter he wrote painfully honest journalism, culminating in his successful novel, "Darkness at Noon." This novel, based on the Stalinist show trials in Russia of the 1930s, went to the heart of Soviet tyranny and mindtwisting. It was a model for Orwell's "1984," and turned many a wavering intellectual away from the siren song of Russian Communism.
Michael Scammell's "Koestler" is a long and incisive biography that lays out the background of Koestler's life and work. The result of detailed research, it is certain to be the authoritative biography of this interesting and important political writer. Koestler is perhaps one of the most insightful European intellectuals to have seen through Soviet communism and written about it convincingly. His other writings, philosophical and scientific, amount to a considerable oeuvre of a man bound on a journey of discovery, though now somewhat neglected.

A fine biography that is well-written and easy to read.
Probably this is for older readers who remember the
passions of the cold war. Read "Darkness at Noon" and
"Scum of the Earth" first. If these do not appeal, skip it.

Book written with a great deal of intelligence and discrimination. Offers the readier a solid background to help us uderstand the scope of Koestler's interests, personal struggles and evolution as a writer, thinker and as a man. A very good read.