Koestler's

Because he has looked at all possible forms of documentation, he is able to reconstruct complicated scenes from Koestler's life with real historical and literary flair.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

What that means, though, is that the entire political context in which Koestler, Sartre, and Camus functioned -- and in which Koestler's most important works were written -- is now gone.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

The professionalization of literary and intellectual life was underway even in Koestler's lifetime, and he chafed against it.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

Before coming to write this review, I had not read "Scum of the Earth", Koestler's autobiographical and journalistic account of the fate of refugees in wartime France.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

To put it bluntly, the deadly struggle between communism and anticommunism -- the central moral issue of Koestler's lifetime -- not only no longer exists, it no longer evokes much interest.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

More than once, he tells us what is happening from several perspectives: what Koestler said, what Koestler's then girlfriend said, what another person at the party remembered twenty years later, and how another writer depicted the event in his diaries.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

This approach to the life of the mind, perfectly acceptable in the Vienna of Koestler's youth, simply looks amateurish from the perspective of the present.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

The festivities began with dinner in an Algerian bistro, continued in a dance hall "lit with pink and blue neon lights," and then, at Koestler's insistence, progressed to Schéhérazade, a nightclub filled with "violinists wandering about playing soulful Russian music into the guests 'ears."

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

Cynthia's death was not only distasteful to the public, it left Koestler's literary estate without an obvious manager.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010

He also notes that the charge has nevertheless deeply tarnished Koestler's posthumous reputation.

Did The Death Of Communism Take Koestler And Other Literary Figures With It? 2010