Koba the Dread
 | |
| Author | Martin Amis |
|---|---|
Publication date | 2002 |
| ISBN | 9780676975178 |
Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Millionis a 2002 non-fiction book by British writerMartin Amis.
Summary
[edit]The book is a study of the depredations of the regime ofJoseph Stalinin the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s. The title alludes to Stalin's nickname "Koba", and the estimated 20 million deaths in the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule owing to starvation, torture,gulags,and the purges and confessions of Stalin'sGreat Terror.The estimate of deaths under Stalin comes fromRobert Conquest's work, a key source and personal friend of Amis.[1]
Reception
[edit]The book received a mixed reception.[2][3]The Guardiangave the novel an average rating of 2.7 out of 10 based on reviews from multiple British newspapers.[4]Globally,Complete Reviewsaying on the consensus "No consensus, but the majority of opinion is decidedly negative -- and very many use the words" self-indulgent ".[5]
InThe New York Times,criticMichiko Kakutanidescribed the book as "the narcissistic musings of a spoiled, upper-middle class litterateur who has never known the kind of real suffering Stalin's victims did".[6]Publishers Weeklyfound that Amis "relates passionately a story that needs to be told, the history of a regime that murdered its own people in order to build a better future for them."[7]AuthorAnne Applebaum,writing inSlate,argued that "Koba the Dreadis not, in fact, a competent account of Stalin's reign but rather a muddled misrendering of both Soviet and Western intellectual history. "[8]
The Leningrad-born American writerGary ShteyngartcalledKoba"harrowing and strangely funny" inThe Washington Post,explaining: "'Koba the Dread' is not easy to forget. Along with the laughter it offers the reader unfamiliar with Stalin's legacy a number that is the first step in understanding Russia's modern tragedy. That number, once again, is twenty million."[9]InThe New York Times Book Review,writer and criticPaul Bermancalled the work "one of the oddest books about Stalin ever written, indignant, angry, personal and strangely touching... [Amis's] book carries a punch, artfully delivered—a punch that comes from looking at death and finding in it nothing but pain, cruelty, sadness, pointlessness and loss, a punch that comes from gazing at the indescribably horrific prison camps of the Soviet Union, or that comes from watching one's father and sister die."[10]The book received scathing reviews in the United Kingdom. HistorianOrlando Figescriticised Amis for, amongst other things, comparing the crying of his six-month daughter with the cries fromButyrka prisonin Moscow during the Great Terror.[11]
Controversy
[edit]The book occasioned a public schism between Amis and fellow writer and close friendChristopher Hitchens,[12][13]especially in the pages ofThe Atlantic,where Hitchens describedKoba the Dreadas "Stalinism without irony".[14]The break was later mended.[15]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Rocca, Christian (7 August 2002)."Koba the Dread di Martin Amis".Linkiesta(in Italian).Retrieved8 April2024.
- ^"Article clipped from The Daily Telegraph".Newspapers.Retrieved8 June2024.
- ^"Article clipped from The Daily Telegraph".Newspapers.Retrieved8 June2024.
- ^"A Jewish excites the critics".The Guardian.14 September 2002.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved8 April2024– via Newspapers.com.
- ^"Koba the Dread".Complete Review.4 October 2023.Retrieved4 October2023.
- ^Kakutani, Michiko (26 June 2002)."Recounting the Suffering of Russia Under Stalin".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.
- ^"Koba The Dread".Publishers Weekly.May 2002.ISSN0000-0019.
- ^Applebaum, Anne (13 August 2002)."Martin Amis swings at Stalin and hits his own best friend instead".Slate.ISSN1091-2339.Retrieved8 April2024.
- ^Shteyngart, Gary (21 July 2002)."Gallows Humor".The Washington Post.ISSN0190-8286.Retrieved8 April2024.
- ^Berman, Paul (28 July 2002). "A Million Deaths is Not Just a Statistic".The New York Times Books Review.ISSN0028-7806.
- ^Figdes, Orlando (1 September 2002)."A shocking lack of decorum".The Daily Telegraph.ISSN0307-1235.Retrieved8 April2024.
- ^Applebaum, Anne (13 August 2002)."The Gulag Argumento".Slate.ISSN1091-2339.Retrieved8 April2024.
- ^"N/A".The Times Literary Supplement.2002.ISSN0307-661X.Archived fromthe originalon 26 August 2011.Retrieved8 April2024.
- ^Hitchens, Christopher (1 September 2002)."Lightness at Midnight".The Atlantic.ISSN2151-9463.Archived from the original on 11 August 2023.Retrieved8 April2024.
{{cite news}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^Amis, Martin (24 April 2011)."Amis on Hitchens: 'He's one of the most terrifying rhetoricians the world has seen'".The Observer.ISSN0029-7712.Archived fromthe originalon 21 August 2013.Retrieved8 April2024.