As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner [1930]

Faulkner's distinctive narrative structures--the uses of multiple points of view and the inner psychological voices of the characters--in one of its most successful incarnations here in As I Lay Dying. In the story, the members of the Bundren family must take the body of Addie, matriarch of the family, to the town where Addie wanted to be buried. Along the way, we listen to each of the members on the macabre pilgrimage, while Faulkner heaps upon them various flavors of disaster. Contains the famous chapter completing the equation about mothers and fish--you'll see.

Author: William Faulkner
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Modern Library (November 28, 2000)
Media type: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audio Book
Pages: 288 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0375504525
Original publication date: 1930

Reader Review

Faulkner with training wheels: helmet still advised ;-)

To quote the briefest chapter, the one that would surely catch your eye if you picked it off a shelf and skimmed through it: "My mother is a fish."

As with his stunning _The_Sound_and_the_Fury_ and _Absalom_Absalom_, this book makes use of the author's masterful use of stream-of-conscious writing to render an entire reality with internal monologues. The story unfolds as you construct it from the observations and responses of the characters. Though briefer and less challenging than these other two books, it's as absorbing a read as they have been for decades. When you reach the end, you can imagine that you'll pick up the book again someday, sure there's more to explore.

The structure is simple once you get the hang of it. Each chapter is the name of a particular character in the story of the family of Addie Bundren, dead in the first few pages, and being transported by her clan to the land of her birth for burial-by wagon, in the heat and dust, over rivers, for weeks, before the vacuum seal... There is no "Once upon a time." Instead, whatever that character is thinking at the instant the chapter begins is what you're reading. Soon, you know who everyone is and what she thinks of everyone else. The effect of this structure is that you can inhabit the narrative as each of the players, can see how events are interpreted differently. It's also like a mystery-someone will have troubled thoughts about something you can't quite distinguish; then, twenty pages later, you figure out what they've been talking about and you flip backward in a frenzy to see how the early references to the issue flesh out the story. This is a terribly rewarding way of reading.

This is a great first Faulkner for everyone. You develop the ability to read his complex novels by virtue of the simplicity of the story and the mostly brief chapters, each from a fresh point of view. You learn to read on if you don't get something. (Important skill: Faulkner is one of my absolute favorite authors since high school, and one of my favorite things is that you have to trust the story to tell you what you need to know in time. Not only do you get the reward of context for the occasional non sequitur, but you have the thrill of anticipation when something weird happens. This book is a great example of how, unlike Hemingway, where you have to read a basically boring story over and over to understand all the juicy stuff, Faulkner gives you nibbles of fantastic plot to hold you through the ultimate analysis.

- by notaprofessional

Rubbernecking on the Literary Highway

I was re-reading this book last week, pen and highlighter in hand, when my husband walked into the living room and said, "What are you reading?" I lifted the cover. "Is it any good?" To which I replied, "No," and he responded, "Why are you reading it?" And, slightly irritated, I said, "For the same reason you are watching the American Idol Audition show. It's DEFINITELY not good, but you can't look away."

And so it is with most of Faulkner's work. As a reader, you should not go into his work expecting anything "good." You won't find an easy or clear plotline, clear language, or (and this is USUALLY a major gripe of mine) likeable characters. But even though you don't really like what you are reading, you just have to know how it ends. You have to know what makes these reprehensible people tick. And, surprisingly enough, you are usually unsatisfied in the end, but not so much that you don't want to double back and have one more look at the car-wreck that is the work of Faulkner.

And so it is with *As I Lay Dying*. It's a fascinating piece of work, masterfully crafted, ultimately depressing, and darkly funny all at once. Having been to Rowan Oak a few times, I can see Faulkner sitting in his front garden chuckling over the idea of Vardaman's infamous "My Mother is a fish," chapter and how it captivated the world with it's "brilliance."

I also have no doubt, having grown up in Mississippi, that he was writing about real people, warts and all. I'm probably related to some of them. Maybe for that reason, Faulkner reads a little differently to locals. While I certainly appreciate his literary genius, the truth and realism of what he wrote also shines through. Reading Faulkner is a little like attending a funeral in Mississippi, something that closely resembles a family reunion set anywhere else - everybody's talking at once (in the most genteel manner, except for that blacksheep son - we all know he's not his Daddy's child, bless his heart - who keeps using bad language) about stuff that would absolutely curl the toenails of anyone is polite "society." The stream-of-consciousness style reminds me very much of what I picked up on as a child overhearing these conversations in the viewing room of the funeral parlor.

So . . . read with an open mind. And if the humor throws you at first, find a copy of the short story of *A Rose for Emily*. It will help you to better understand what Faulkner considered funny. Though off on other literary journeys, I'm sure that eventually my morbid curiousity will draw me back to this trainwreck again before too long . . . just can't stop looking . . .

- by Alesha N. Gates "Christian, Mother, Daughter, Teacher, Friend"

 

My mother is a fish

As I Lay Dying came right on the heels of The Sound And The Fury, and carried that novel's main stylistic technique - the distortion of time and truth by means of the varying, highly subjective viewpoints of completely different narrators - to its logical conclusion. While its predecessor contained a whole section told from the third person, in an attempt to clarify the wild images and impressions roiling in the other sections, As I Lay Dying is told in its entirety in the first person, by fifteen different people, each of whom talks for about four pages at a time. These are people in some way connected to the Bundren family, who got together to take the dead body of their matriarch Addie Bundren to her hometown of Jefferson for burial, in accordance with a longtime wish of hers. Inevitably, chaos ensues, as not one of the family members particularly cares for any of the others, many of them have their own hidden problems eating them from the inside, and there are plenty of things to hamper their progress along the way.

Despite all that has been said about Faulkner's "difficulty," this is not a difficult novel to read. It's certainly much easier than Benjy's or Quentin's chapters in The Sound And The Fury, and those were still comprehensible (after a bit of effort). You are told at the beginning of each monologue who will be talking, and although the prose gets rather oblique rather often, Faulkner does not resort to that cheap modernist trick of convoluted, excessively complex or just completely invented verbiage. The words are simple; it's what they mean that's complicated. The extreme subjectivity, however, sometimes has an unintended negative effect: the scene where the Bundrens try to get across a swollen river should have been gripping, but comes across as muddled.

In order for this novel to have been a complete success, it was necessary to give each narrator a truly unique and distinctive voice. And here is where Faulkner was put to a real test. It's not easy, after all, to write from fifteen wholly unique perspectives. What's surprising is the extent to which he succeeded: you can recognize Anse's hypocrisy, Cash's levelheadedness and sympathy, Cora's superciliousness and Darl's alienation when you see them without having to check the title of the chapter. Dewey Dell's monologues are always more scattered, more impressionistic and more colourful than any others; perhaps Faulkner was making the point that women think in a fundamentally different, more turbulent and more beautiful, way than men. However, he stumbled when creating Vardaman's perspective, which is neither as believable nor as distinct as the others. And many of the less important narrators all sound like watered-down Jason Compsons. In addition, Faulkner occasionally falls into the trap of self-indulgence, most frequently during Darl's existential soliloquies concerning the nature of "is" and "was." These are neither credible nor insightful. Nor is Darl's end particularly convincing; though the events of the book understandably agitate him, what he supposedly does goes against the state of his mind as shown in his chapters.

There are some rather fine parts in As I Lay Dying. Darl's last monologue is just plain disturbing. Peabody's rage at Anse perfectly reflects the sentiments of the reader. Dewey Dell's inner dilemma is affecting. The dialogue is very well written. However, it isn't a _great_ novel. It lacks the tempestuous passions flying in The Sound And The Fury. It isn't as consistently compelling as that novel. It also lacks that novel's doomy atmosphere, its proud epic feel, its moments of reflection and its occasional stabbing poignancy. Basically, the stylistic achievement makes it a worthy step forward, but it is not as illuminating, as powerful or as original as its predecessor, and it isn't an unqualified success.

- by Angry Mofo "angrymofo"

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes [2010]

Matterhorn is a marvel--a living, breathing book with Lieutenant Waino Mellas and the men of Bravo Company at its raw and battered heart. Karl Marlantes doesn't introduce you to Vietnam in his brilliant war epic--he unceremoniously drops you into the jungle, disoriented and dripping with leeches, with only the newbie lieutenant as your guide. Mellas is a bundle of anxiety and ambition, a college kid who never imagined being part of a "war that none of his friends thought was worth fighting," who realized too late that "because of his desire to look good coming home from a war, he might never come home at all." A highly decorated Vietnam veteran himself, Marlantes brings the horrors and heroism of war to life with the finesse of a seasoned writer, exposing not just the things they carry, but the fears they bury, the friends they lose, and the men they follow. Matterhorn is as much about the development of Mellas from boy to man, from the kind of man you fight beside to the man you fight for, as it is about the war itself. Through his untrained eyes, readers gain a new perspective on the ravages of war, the politics and bureaucracy of the military, and the peculiar beauty of brotherhood.


Author: Karl Marlantes
Genre: War novel
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Media type: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audio Book
Pages: 592 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0802119285
Publication date: March 2010


Reader Review

Matterhorn - A grunts view
I am not qualified, so I will not attempt a literary review of the book "Matterhorn". What I am qualified to comment on is the authenticity of this novel. I was in Vietnam at the same time the author was, our experience differed mainly in the name of our units. Marlantes was in Charlie 1/4, I was in Alpha 1/4. It's all so accurate, so real, and brought back a flood of memories from my time in the jungle. If a person wants to know what it was like to be a grunt in a Marine Corps rifle Co in I Corps in the Republic of Vietnam in the late 60's, then read "Matterhorn". I cannot express how impressed I was by this novel. Mr. Marlantes NAILED it. He wrote my story, and the story of the men I humped those jungle trails with, the men I fought, cried, and died with. Thank you Sir.
- by Rodger Clemons

A story within a story, within a story
Although it's true that Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War isn't your ordinary war novel, it will give the reader an historically accurate and alarming vivid experience of the conflict that took place over 40 years ago in South East Asia. Just like other books of this type, the person who reads this 622 page book will be taken through the lives of teen boy's as they struggle with the reality of becoming a Marine, their painfully rapid acceleration into adulthood and too often their seemingly meaningless demise. As in other stories about war it has all of the usual components like the deep comradery between solders, the sorrow of loss, the intense fear of battle and the excitement of combat. Readers of this genre will not be disappointed. However, author Karl Marlantes has gone above, beyond and far deeper with Matterhorn than the ordinary war novel.
In this book about the Vietnam War, is another book about humanity and humility, and yet another about the complexities of racism. What also immerges within these pages is another story laced with subtle religious symbolism and the effects of a sacrosanct ideology. Even a rendition of a well-known allegorical tales is exquisitely presented as still another story in this winning novel.

The individually unique characters in this book grapple with meaning; the meaning of leadership, the meaning of reason, the meaning of war, the meaning of death and the meaning of life. Human dilemmas such as honor vs. cowardice, morality vs. malice, feminine vs. masculine and belief vs. doubt are painstaking studied and flushed out through the rich personalities portrayed within. It's also important to note Marlantes has captured, as only a combat veteran could, the quick wit and primordial humor present between soldiers during wartime.

The author brings you along as Second Lieutenant Waino Mellas, the man character, goes through profound physical, psychological and developmental transformations.
We meet Mellas with a detailed description of his appearance. He's donned in a new flak jacket, embarrassingly shiny new boots and the "...dark green t-shirt and boxer shorts his mother had dyed for him just three weeks ago..." We also join in with his thoughts.

"Forty new names and faces in his platoon alone, close to 200 in the company, and they all look the same, black or white. It overwhelmed him. They all wore the same filthy tattered camouflage, with no rank or insignia, no way of distinguishing them, from the skipper right on down. All of them were too thin, too young and too exhausted."

Another carefully crafted character is Hawke, an older Marine at 22 with a large red moustache who is filled with the kind of wisdom born out of experience.
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"Hawke had been in-country long enough to be accustomed to being scared and waiting--that came with every operation--but he was not used to being worried, and that worried him".

The relationship between these two men at first tenuous, grows with a need for survival and the kind of respect only shared by those who have endured what many only experience in their worst nightmares.

Some of the other personalities that Marlantes has expertly woven into this human drama are: Lieutenant Colonel Simpson a despicable alcoholic who the reader can't help but pity, Vancouver who has chosen to live life on his own terms, Cassidy the hard and bitter gunny, Doc Fredrickson and senor squid Sheller both who use the minimal medical supplies, their dedication and their compassion to help gravely wounded soldiers, Hippy "... a creature of unknown order, a spirit carried by crippled feat..." and the self assured Lieutenant Karen Elsked, an integral part of the parable within this story of war. These are only a few of the cast of characters superbly developed in Matterhorn.

The fine and clear word smithing in this novel brings the reader into the jungles of the Quang-Tri Province of Vietnam. You can smell the freshly cut bamboo, feel the sting of ant bites, shiver as the leeches slide under your utility shirt, and see the "...fine faint plume...darker grayish silver cloud hardly distinguishable from the overcast backdrop.." of Agent Orange. As night or rain falls you experience the wet, the cold

Reading Marlantes's vivid words have you feeling the pain of jungle rot, emersion foot, starving hunger, debilitating thirst and the pummeling of mortars.

"Another explosion hit only 15 feet from their hole, followed by four more. They winced with the pain as the concussion slapped against their eardrums. Mellas felt the air rush from his lungs. He felt he was in a heavy black bag being beaten with unseen clubs. Shrapnel hissed overhead and dirt rained down their heads, down their backs, in between their gritted teeth, and caked around their eyes, Smoke replaced oxygen. They couldn't talk. They endured".

Because of the authors' dedication to detail and authenticity words like hooch, squid, fragging and gungy or acronyms like FAC, C-4, or 175's could leave those without a military background lost. Marlantes skillfully handles this problem with creating an easy to use "Glossary of Weapons, Technical Terms, Slangs and Jargon". He also includes a "Chain of Command" flow chart complete with radio call signs.

Marlantes's story telling capabilities evoke emotions not often accessed while reading a novel. Any reader of Matterhorn is advised to allow the story to completely envelope you in order for a true depth of understanding to take place.

Lastly, at the risk of revealing the allegorical tale mentioned earlier, it must be said that Marlantes does an exquisite job of showing the meaning of this tale. One must have compassion and live the honorable life instead of falling prey to evil. So "There it is".

- by Lorry Kaye, MA, LMHC

More like a screenplay than a novel
I'm afraid I'm going to have to differ with many of the reviews of Matterhorn. While the story is reasonably well written and somewhat compelling, it feels false in the end, more like a screenplay for Platoon or Full Metal Jacket than a novel that would rank alongside The Naked and the Dead or All Quiet on the Western Front. Better Viet Nam books, like The Things They Carried, have been written. I think the reason the book feels like a screen play is that simply too many things happen in too short order, and too many cliches play out. I'm not arguing whether or not Marine units or Army units had to retake the same hill over and over, or whether or not Marines were fighting against impossible odds and careless officers after rear echelon glory. All those things are true.

But Matterhorn gives us all this, and much, much more, in a very compact timeframe in an omniscient third person voice, as if we hover over and in the thoughts of many of the soldiers. The main character, Lt. Mellas, tries to hard to demonstrate his fairness, and has conflicting thoughts of abandoning his men and winning medals for valor. We listen to all of this play out in his head. It becomes a bit much at times, as does his discussions with Jackson or China, disaffected African-Americans in his platoon.

The rear echelon colonels and generals play out as MASH stereotypes, after glory and body counts with little regard for their men. The key colonel and his S-3, Major Blakely, subvert the wishes and commands of the general to use the company as bait and force the general's hand to fight in a place the Marines can't support with air power or artillery. Even in Viet Nam there were checks and balances in command!

Further, the book contains at least two instances of fragging a superior officer, events which did on rare occasion happen but never with this frequency. Even Mellas, the hero of the book, takes a shot at his commanding colonel, only to be disrupted at the last minute by another lieutenant. Some of these vignettes make the book seem more like a screenplay, as we are meant to hate the senior officers and are complicit in the fragging. The junior officers leading the company, Fitch and Hawke, are used up and cast aside. Fitch, doing everything he can to hold the platoon together, is transferred to a desk job by the colonel who needs more wins and more glory.

In this book, too much happens too quickly, and often with too much foreshadowing. I'll expect to see it rapidly converted into a movie much like Avatar, where the grunts are good and the officers are bad. It's too bad really, because there is a lot to like in this book, and a better editor would have slimmed it down and made it more focused.
- by Jeffrey Phillips "Innovation and Team Productivity Consultant"

Where She Went by Gayle Forman [2011]

In the three years since the tragic accident Mia barely survived in If I Stay, she and high school ex-boyfriend Adam have lived separate lives on opposite coasts. But then Adam, now the dissatisfied front man of popular LA-based band Collateral Damage, stops over in New York City for one night before kicking off the European leg of his tour. It happens to be the same evening that Mia, now well on her way to becoming a renowned cellist, is performing at Carnegie Hall. Adam buys a ticket, planning to slip in and out, but Mia spots him and for the first time in years they’re face-to-face with each other and their shared past. Over the course of one evening, as Adam and Mia traverse the city's streets, they relive the four days Mia spent in the intensive care unit as well as her departure to Juilliard and from the life she knew. Emotionally raw and incredibly moving, Gayle Forman again showcases her considerable talent for drawing complex characters who face impossible decisions and then bear the consequences. Equally as compelling as If I Stay, Where She Went is powerful, heartbreaking, and everything fans of Mia, Adam, and Forman could hope for.

Author: Gayle Forman
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (April 5, 2011)
Media type: Hardcover, Kindle, Audio Book
Pages: 208 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0525422945
Preceded by: If I Stay

Reader Review

Three years ago, Mia Hall was in a serious car accident that killed her family and left her struggling to decide whether there was enough here on earth to keep her here. But that was Mia's story, Where She Went, is Adam's story. Adam was Mia's boyfriend who was there through it all and begging her to stay. But now, she is gone. Off to Julliard to study the cello, while Adam is now a full-fledged rock God.

And with all rock stars comes baggage. Adam is suffering from anxiety, has a temper that would shame the Gallagher brothers and smokes like a chimney stack. He has the typical California movie star girlfriend, but he's not happy.

A chance encounter brings Adam face to face with Mia and what happens to the both of them since she left will leave most readers breathless and in tears.

If I Stay ended with the reader not knowing what decision Mia made, but you know how and why she did what she did. Leaving Adam was probably the hardest thing she could do, and it all but destroyed him. He locked himself away, he wrote music that became the biggest album of his career, but it still wasn't enough to help he get over Mia.

The lyrics that open each chapter made me wish that there really was an album called Collateral Damage. Which is exactly what Adam is feeling. He's become collateral damage to Mia's desire to stay alive. Watching him navigate the roads of NYC and realize how much he didn't know was brilliant. When it comes to Mia, Adam doesn't seem know a lot.

Gayle Forman really made me feel and want to help Adam, and reading the lyrics made me realize how I've felt like that in my lifetime. How sometimes we get so caught up in other people's lives that what eventually happens is we all become collateral damage. I bawled like a baby with the first book, but I was ready for this one. And I still cried. I fell in love with Adam all over again.

- by Laura's Review Bookshelf

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson [2011]

In her powerful debut, Hodgkinson takes on the tale of a family desperately trying to put itself back together after WWII. Silvana and Janusz have only been married a few months when the war forces them apart. Silvana and their infant son, Aurek, leave Poland and disappear into the forests of Eastern Europe, where they bear witness to German atrocities. Meanwhile Janusz, the sole survivor of his slaughtered military unit, flees to France. There, he takes up with a local girl and, though he loves her, awaits the war's end so that he can go in search of his wife and son. He eventually finds them in a refugee camp and they travel to England together, where they attempt to put the past behind them. But the secrets they carry pull at the threads of their fragile peace. Hodgkinson alternates viewpoints to relay the story of three desperate characters, skillfully toggling between the war and its aftermath with wonderfully descriptive prose that pulls the reader into a sweeping tale of survival and redemption.

Author: Amanda Hodgkinson
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Media type: Hardcover
Pages: 336 pp
ISBN-13: 978-0670022632
Published date: 28th April [UK], 1st May 2011 [US].

Reader Review

“War had been winter all the way, years of Decembers and Januaries. Peacetime was meant to be summer …”

Those are the thoughts of Janusz Novak when his dream of the perfect English life for his family begins to unravel around him.

Amanda Hodgkinson is a remarkable writer who has written a remarkable novel. Closing the final page, through blurry eyes and with a lump in my throat, I realised that I’d become more than just a reader. I’d become a character, immersed totally in the story of Janusz, Silvana and Aurek. From their beginnings in pre-war Warsaw to their final destination at 22, Britannia Road – and every step of their tumultuous journey in between.

We follow separate threads as Janusz and Silvana are separated during the German invasion of Poland. Neither of them take a normal path through the war years, and the author doesn’t hold back from the gritty reality of their lives. But survive the war they do, in very different ways. But fate brings them back together, and both are eager in their own ways of burying the past and moving onto a new life together in England.

What we discover in this book is that nothing can ever be taken for granted. Peace time does not mean instant happiness, being together does not make a family, and hidden secrets can never remain hidden forever.

22, Britannia Road is a wonderful book by a gifted author, whose writing style and voice is unique and beautiful. It’s hard to believe this book is a debut novel.

 It will sit on your bookshelf for many years, watching over your life like an old friend, ready to offer you escape and solace in your dark days, or warmth and companionship through good times.

The book demands the reader consider a new perspective on both the fragility of life and the strength of the human spirit, and just what people will endure to survive. The story and the characters in these pages will stay with you for a very long time in the way only great writing can do.

If you think you’ve read every type of war story there is, you haven’t. Not until you’ve read 22, Britannia Road.

Released in UK 28th April, and US 1st May 2011.

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler [1940]

This splendid novel is set in the tumultuous Soviet Union of the 1930s during the treason trials. Rubashov, the protagonist and a hero of the revolution, is arrested and jailed for things he has not done, though there is much about the current Soviet state that veered from his ideals as a revolutionary. His investigators, Ivanov and Gletkin, seek a public confession and interrogate him using a number of methods. Through the ordeal, Rubashov reaches an epiphany or two while his interrogators suffer the cruel fate of the Soviet machine. Darkness at Noon succeeds as political/historical novel, but even more so as a refreshing tale of the human spirit.

Original title: Sonnenfinsternis
Author: Arthur Koestler
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Scribner
Media type: Paperback, Audio Book
Pages: 288 pp
ISBN-13: 978-1416540267
Publication date: 1940

Reader Review

Penalty is Death - Guilty of Political Divergencies

I first read Koestler's Darkness at Noon in high school, close to 30 years ago. Although I cannot recall my earlier reaction to the book, I am certain that I was not prepared, as a 17-year old, to appreciate either the literary beeauty or socio-political importance of Koestler's masterpiece.

I came back to this book for two reasons. I had just finished reading Volkogonov's "Stalin" and "Trotsky" and Solzhenitzyn's Red Wheel (Volume I). Darknesss at Noon seemed to be the next appropriate book to pick up off the shelf.

I had also been reading about the remarks President Clinton made (alluded to by other reviewers) to Sid Blumenthal indicating that he felt "like the prisoner in Darkness at Noon."

It is, perhaps, either a sad testament to human nature, or an indicia of the power of great literature, that the story of the fate of one (fictional) man, Rubashov, can feel more compelling than the narrative description (in "Stalin" and "Trotsky") of the fate of millions.

Further, whereas Volkogonov's works go a long way towards explaining what happened and how it happened, Rubashov's self-crticial analysis, and his dialogues with Ivanov and then Gletkin go a long way towards explaining why the purges happened. It helps explain the mindset of those many, like Rubashov, who confessed their non-existent sins before their ineveitable demise. It also goes a long way to explaing why so many millions of people actively participated in the denunciations that accompanied the purges and show trials.

Clinton's comparison to Rubashov is rich with unintended irony. Perhaps Clinton, like me, had not read the book since high school, and felt that Rubashov was the purely innocent victim of a prosecutorial system run amok. However, Koestler makes it clear that Rubashov was not merely a vicitim of Stalin, or Stalin's henchmen, but of the system that Rubashov (a hero of the revolution) himself played an important role in creating. Rubashov spent a life filled with deceit, manipulation, and even murder, on behalf of his party and its "core values". The doctrine of the end justifying the means was a cornersone of Rubashov's philosphy and morality. Whatever "core values" existed at the beginning of his revolutionary life with the party had long since withered to nothingness by the time of his imprisonment. Consequently, if President Clinton's comparison of himself to Rubashov was based upon the idea that Rubashov was a purely innocent victim, he is just wrong. To the extent Clinton was aware that Rubashov was in no small way responsible for creating the milieu under which this despicable actvity takes place - then he is more self-aware than I had previously given him credit for.

Finally, the book is just darn well-written. Of particular beauty and impact are Rubashov's dialues with his interrogators.

Pick up this book and read it.

- by Michael Wischmeyer

A classic

"The characters in this book are fictitious. The historical circumstances which determined their actions are real. The life of the man N. S. Rubashov is a synthesis of the lives of a number of men who were victims of the so-called Moscu Trials".That is part of the dedicatory that Koestler wrote for his book, "Darkness at noon".

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) was a person that believed in the progress that Communism was supposed to bring, but that became disillusioned in the way in which that dream was being carried out in the URSS. He wrote many books that give expression to his feelings of disenchantment, but "Darkness at noon" is probably the most popular one.

Not overly long, and very easy to read, this book is the story of Rubashov, an old communist who took part in the revolution and who is very loyal to the "Cause". Strangely enough, he is accused of treason, and taken to jail, where he must face harsh interrogatories. While he is in jail, Rubashov experiences flashbacks that allow us to know more about him, and the things he did due to his devotion to the Party. He betrayed people he loved, and those he appreciated, for no other reason than obedience to the Party and fear of going to jail.

We can have an idea of Rubashov's feelings and ideas all throughout his ordeal thanks to the fact that "Darkness at noon" is written in the first person. After a while, we are Rubashov, and like him we are surprised, outraged, desperate and ultimately resigned to our luck.

In the beginning, Rubashov says that he isn't a traitor and that he hasn't done the things he is accused of. But slowly our main character starts to come to terms with the idea that the truth of the accusation isn't really important, what matters is to serve the country. And if the leader (Number one) says he is to be blamed, he must have done something....

The prisioner writes a diary, where he dwells upon the nature of men, and politics. He thinks that after the revolution he defended so passionately, an individual is defined merely as "a multitude of one million divided by one million". The individual doesn't matter because only the "Cause" matters. Regarding politics, he concludes that at the end only one thing is clear: "the end justifies the means". Is it any surprise, then, that the tone that pervades this book is so gloomy?.

On the whole, I highly recommend "Darkness at noon" to all of you, for two reasons. To start with, it is a literary masterpiece, beautifully written and accessible to the average reader. Secondly, and more important, it also shows us once again that every attempt to forget that the end doesn't justifies the means ends in a nightmare.

- by M. B. Alcat "Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back"

Psychological Examination of Stalinist Show Trials

Set during the Stalinist purges and show trials, `Darkness at Noon' presents a fictionalized account of the interrogation and breaking of a (former) communist leader `Rubashov'. Under Stalin, 'former communists' were limited to those persons about to be executed, already executed, or waiting to be uncovered. As an original Bolshevik, a leader of the 1917 revolution, Rubashov's disillusionment was simply inadmissible to Number One (as Stalin is referred to by Koestler).

Koestler explores the journey of Rubashov from the knock at the door through the final denouement. The reader observes Rubashov, who plays the role of narrator, as he undergoes the psychological change from a determination to resist to nearly total capitulation. Rubashov manages to hold to some crumbs of self-respect, but yields to the logic of the revolution as more important than any individual even when the accusations are complete fabrications.

`Darkness at Noon' is precisely imagined with its details of Rubashov pacing the floor of his small isolation cell, the coded tapping between adjacent cells, and the deprivation of physical comforts that make the subsequent small graces, such as limited outdoor exercise, become precious by comparison. This much of the tale was informed by Rubashov's experiences as a prisoner during the Spanish Civil War. Koestler's examination of the psychological destruction of the prisoner is fascinating, although at times it briefly lapses into stultifying disquisitions on the distorted Stalinist political philosophy.

Koestler himself was a German communist through much of the 1930's before immigrating to Britain, leaving the party and becoming an influential ex-communist. George Orwell's excellent essay about Koestler is readily available on the Internet (google `arthur koestler orwell').

Darkness at Noon was the middle book of an unusual trilogy of loosely related subjects: Gladiators and Arrival and Departure (20th Century Classics). Readers may also wish examine Victor's Serge's The Case of Comrade Tulayev (New York Review Books Classics).

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the era of communism in its Stalinist form or more broadly in the perverse ability of humans to place greater meaning in abstract and abstruse ideology than in the actual lives of other humans.

- by Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life"