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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 10, No. 1. February 28, 1947

Book Review

Book Review

The story of "Thieves in the Night" is placed between 1937 and the proclamation of the White Paper, 1939, whilst the experiment described therein concerns a collective Jewish settlement, a Kvutzah, in Galilee, called Ezra's Tower. The founding and development, and consolidation of Ezra's Tower, forms the framework within which a concise analysis of the spiritual process and ultimate fate of certain members with "the thing to forget," which seems to be the driving impulse of several of the communal members, is given. Koestler describes how and why some of the members of the settlement join the Terrorist organisation, the Irgun Zwal Leumi. He paints a brief picture of the efficiency of this organisation as compared with the peaceful modes of compromise adopted by the Jishuv, which eventually led to a mob riot in Jerusalem. The opposing ideals of the socialist Kvutzah and the Fascistic terrorist group are admirably demonstrated in the dialogue between Reuben and Joseph. His description of the role of the English civil servant of both higher and lower ranks, and the Arabs of both town and country, is a realistic one, whilst the causes for the continual immigration of Jews to Palestine which he analyses into three categories, heroism, materialism and persecution, could have brought enlightment to thousands.

The difficulty of the book lies in the coupling of fiction and fact. Nobody nowadays will distinguish between Koestler's dramatic inventions and the facts. Herein lies the book's danger. It is all too easy for the reader to generalize from the particular incidents described in the book. Thus, after having read the book many would, and do erroneously conclude that those who live in Palestine settlements are sex ridden authoritarian maniacs; that the Irgun Zwai Leumi is a heroic band of people retaliating only when Arabs rape Jewesses; that the religious inhabitants of Jerusalem are crazy neurotics; Chat all Arabs are against Jewish settlements. The general impression created by this book is that Koestler is attracted by the sentimentality of violence. In the words of D. R. Eiston, "the profund purpose with which this book seems to have set out, the purpose chronicling The Return, is gradually lost as the book proceeds." This is a modern novel, in which an entire society, composed of disparate elements is vibrantly but often too convincingly, set forth.

—E.R.R.