Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Darkness at Noon
Book Review: vital
Summary: 5 Stars
This one is deservedly Top 10 (Modern Library Top 100, although it is a translation from the German). It is the story of Rubashov, an aging revolutionary in an unnamed Revolutionary State (obviously the Soviet Union). He is arrested & repeatedly interrogated, until he finally admits to a series of crimes against the State, which it is obvious to us and to his interrogators that he could not possibly have committed. Koestler, a former Communist, examines how dedicated Communists were brought to the point where they confessed ridiculous crimes in Stalin's Show Trials of the 1930's. In so doing, he also demonstrates that once you convince youself that the ends justify the means, you should not be surprised when those means are turned against you.
GRADE: A+
Book Review: what's to like?
Summary: 2 Stars
if you like this book, more power to you. i wish you well. but, please: shame on the modern library editorial board for choosing this thing as the 8th greatest novel of the 20th century! ridiculous. there is nothing special about the writing, and the whole book is such a heavy-handed ideological sermon, that it is more like a dark dreary pondorous cartoon i wish i had taken no part of. if you like ugly literature, this will be for you.