Book review of Dialogue with Death: The Journal of a Prisoner of the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War by Arthur Koestler

This nonfiction account of the author’s incarceration awaiting execution is compelling in itself, even if it did not serve as the backstory to Arthur Koestler’s fictional magnum opus, Darkness at Noon. Yet, among this prolific author’s many books, Dialogue with Death remains lost in obscurity. Perhaps this is because the Spanish Civil War serves as the backdrop to Dialogue, and for Americans the the horrors of the Spanish Civil War have been dimmed by the mega-horrors of World War II for which Spain served as prelude.

As the first half of this book details the chaos in Spain during the early years of its Civil War, most American readers will want to skip the first half, and plunge headlong right into the book’s second half. So I suggest beginning reading halfway into the book. And if you seek further shortcuts, then I recommend reading only pages 116-121, 125, 139, 149-150, 155, 169-171, 175-176, 202-204, and 215.

As a book review of Koestler’s autobiography, my review ends here. The rest is my own autobio. So don’t say I didn’t warn you. At age 14, I wrote my 10th grade European History report about the Spanish Civil War. Already an ambitious reader, I exceeded my assignment and read two of the three books on the subject found in my high school library. As you might guess, this book was the third, so I borrowed it with the intention to read this, too. I did not, but I did tell my history teacher that I intended to read it during the summer vacation. Alas, I failed to act on my plan. Two summers later, during that legendary summer between high school and college, I did read Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, as well as his Arrival and Departure. But yet again, I avoided reading Dialogue with Death.

For the past 60 years, my statement of good intention to my teacher has haunted me, in part because the book’s ominous yet attractive title, too, haunted me. Remaindered this past winter by the University of Chicago Press for a pittance of the original price, I was enticed to purchase this book directly from the publisher, this third time again with my intention to fulfill my past plans. And at long last, indeed I did. I now can face death as a happy man.