Word: koestlers
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...prepared to engage Russia in the Battle for Germany (at Moscow in March). But last week the Battle for France, also an important sector of the Battle for Europe, was well on the way to being lost. Arthur Koestler, brilliant novelist (Darkness at Noon) and acute observer of European affairs, reported (in the N.Y. Times Sunday magazine) what he had just seen in France. His report read like an obituary of Europe's hopes...
Said one Socialist Deputy: "If the Communist Party decides to take over France, they can do it by telephone." The Communists were not prepared to do so at once. They preferred to wait and undermine the last vestiges of sovereign government in France. France, said Koestler, "has become a Troy, with the wooden horse standing on a pedestal in the market place; the children pat it on the nose, and the grownups, who know better, do the same, with an embarrassed laugh, pretending not to hear the ominous noises in its belly...
Highlights of History. Two recent pictures, little highlights of history, illustrate Koestler's meaning. One shows Communist boss Jacques Duclos (see cut) bouncing out of his first conference with new Premier Leon Blum. Duclos is unmistakably the master, a rotund figure of smug and pregnant power. The other picture shows France's new Socialist Cabinet. On the eve of taking office, they are just as unmistakably the defeated-pathetic shadows, human ciphers called to the semblance of power, but denied even the illusion of political effectiveness. For, says Koestler, "the French Socialists have lost both their courage...
Joseph's decision to become a terrorist, however, is precipitated by the Arab murder of the woman he loves, Dina. It hardly seems fair to hinge the major decision of the book on this one incident, but Koestler probably justifies this disturbing reasoning on the grounds that it is just some such private crisis that makes up mens' minds on more broadly ideological questions. Aside from this one questionable bit, Koestler's argument is both fairly and illuminatingly presented. Arabs and British as well as Jews are given a chance to speak their pieces effectively and clearly; Joseph, Koestler...
...Koestler's deadpan, newspaper style of writing, with its emphasis upon understatement, suggests impartiality and permits objective writing, as in the courtroom and 1939 riot chapters, to gain great emotional force and a continual atmosphere of tension. Unfortunately, Koestler's people disappear just as they begin to become interesting as individuals, but what they have to say and think is vivid and unmistakable. For "Thieves in the Night" is more than mere debate. It is essentially a remarkably exciting narrative presentation of a political philosophy on a high intellectual level that should have appeal for all readers, whether...