--- product_id: 18155648 title: "Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million" price: "S$34" currency: SGD in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sg/products/18155648-koba-the-dread-laughter-and-the-twenty-million store_origin: SG region: Singapore --- # Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million **Price:** S$34 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million - **How much does it cost?** S$34 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sg](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/18155648-koba-the-dread-laughter-and-the-twenty-million) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A brilliant weave of personal involvement, vivid biography and political insight, Koba the Dread is the successor to Martin Amis’s award-winning memoir, Experience . Koba the Dread captures the appeal of one of the most powerful belief systems of the 20th century — one that spread through the world, both captivating it and staining it red. It addresses itself to the central lacuna of 20th-century thought: the indulgence of Communism by the intellectuals of the West. In between the personal beginnings and the personal ending, Amis gives us perhaps the best one-hundred pages ever written about Stalin: Koba the Dread, Iosif the Terrible. The author’s father, Kingsley Amis, though later reactionary in tendency, was a “Comintern dogsbody” (as he would come to put it) from 1941 to 1956. His second-closest, and then his closest friend (after the death of the poet Philip Larkin), was Robert Conquest, our leading Sovietologist whose book of 1968, The Great Terror , was second only to Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago in undermining the USSR. The present memoir explores these connections. Stalin said that the death of one person was tragic, the death of a million a mere “statistic.” Koba the Dread , during whose course the author absorbs a particular, a familial death, is a rebuttal of Stalin’s aphorism. Review: SOMETHING AMISS - On the surface of "Koba the Dread" Amis is asking two not-very-interesting questions: why does the Soviet Union still have its admirers and, who was worse, the Nazis or the Communists? The first question is never really answered -- we're told what is obvious, that there is a lingering nostalgia for a set of ideals never realized, or even approximated. The second strikes me somewhat like asking if you would rather be set fire to or set on fire. The Soviets clearly managed to kill more people than the Nazis: they win in quantitative measures. Amis decides however that the Nazis were worse, for qualitative reasons. Stalin wins again -- style points. But there is, of course, much more here. His writing on the "negative perfection" achieved by Stalin is priceless. Even more, his writing on the almost lunatic laughter brought about by Stalin's policies are perhaps the most illuminating aspect of the book. In his description of an election, seen through the journal of a woman who lived during the Terror, we are also reading a close parallel to Amis's own ideas about humor. In early essays, Amis has been very clear that only the blackest humor will do, a humor he achieves to remarkable effect in novels such as "Dead babies" "Money" "London Fields", "The Information" and others. But this humor is real, and it provides a component of discomfort about what the fiction does accomplish, in a way that fiction cannot (is this an experiemnt in form?). Death is also real, on a continental scale. Humor and death -- death after all is "The Information" -- imbue virtually all his fiction. His interest in real death, real humor, must have provided some of the impetus for this book. Read this way, "Koba the Dread" probably tells us more about Amis than Stalin. After all, the stories and facts presented in "Koba" are drawn from widely known, still readily available sources. While they are masterfully selected, arranged and presented, I think they serve only one main purpose, and that is to take us from the incomprehensible magnitude of Soviet lies and crimes down to a fully comprehensible one-on-one experience. By closing with a letter to his friend Christopher Hitchens and another to his one-time party-member deceased father, Amis transforms this observation of history into something infinitely closer to the bone. Through this personal familiarity, death now takes on a color different from his fiction. It is frankly, damply, intimate. We are allowed a glimpse of the other struggle, the struggle of intellect facing its own end. Here, Amis seems rounder and more humbled by experience, by real life. "The Information" is no longer abstract and confined to the printed page, it is in the air he's breathing. And because of this transformation, there passes between author and reader, a sense of something sacred. Which brings us to the final question of the book. "Zachto?", "what for?". For the Soviet experiment, there is no answer able to justify such a grotesque and utterly failed exercise of power. For the rest of us, the answer is, obviously, in recognizing the profound value of life. Review: Amiss is not amiss - This is one of the better works I have read on Stalin and the "Great Terror". Apart from the "Gulag" a work of infinite greatness, this is a grand essay on a moment in time. The personal touch, is almost name dropping, but it surves well when trying to demonstrate the truth of Stalin's quote, "The death of one is tragic, the death of millions is a statistic." One cannot comprehend millions of people slaughtered, but individual stories cut to the core. Who was worse, the NAZIs or Stalin? It is not just an academic question. It needs to be answered. Do we rely soley on the head count of the dead? Stalin wins. Do we rely on the brutality of the idea? Stalin wins! Do we rely solely on who was more inloved with power, self and control? Stalin wins again. It should be noted that the killings by Stalin are more random and focused on class and not solely on religion, but millions, more than 6 million Russian Christians died. A great short introduction for the neophite into the reality of Communism and why it is so important NOT to allow tyrants the chance to gain control of nations. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #890,124 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #818 in Communism & Socialism (Books) #1,221 in European Politics Books #1,303 in Russian History (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 287 Reviews | ## Images ![Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ej2IJx3mL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SOMETHING AMISS *by H***N on August 30, 2002* On the surface of "Koba the Dread" Amis is asking two not-very-interesting questions: why does the Soviet Union still have its admirers and, who was worse, the Nazis or the Communists? The first question is never really answered -- we're told what is obvious, that there is a lingering nostalgia for a set of ideals never realized, or even approximated. The second strikes me somewhat like asking if you would rather be set fire to or set on fire. The Soviets clearly managed to kill more people than the Nazis: they win in quantitative measures. Amis decides however that the Nazis were worse, for qualitative reasons. Stalin wins again -- style points. But there is, of course, much more here. His writing on the "negative perfection" achieved by Stalin is priceless. Even more, his writing on the almost lunatic laughter brought about by Stalin's policies are perhaps the most illuminating aspect of the book. In his description of an election, seen through the journal of a woman who lived during the Terror, we are also reading a close parallel to Amis's own ideas about humor. In early essays, Amis has been very clear that only the blackest humor will do, a humor he achieves to remarkable effect in novels such as "Dead babies" "Money" "London Fields", "The Information" and others. But this humor is real, and it provides a component of discomfort about what the fiction does accomplish, in a way that fiction cannot (is this an experiemnt in form?). Death is also real, on a continental scale. Humor and death -- death after all is "The Information" -- imbue virtually all his fiction. His interest in real death, real humor, must have provided some of the impetus for this book. Read this way, "Koba the Dread" probably tells us more about Amis than Stalin. After all, the stories and facts presented in "Koba" are drawn from widely known, still readily available sources. While they are masterfully selected, arranged and presented, I think they serve only one main purpose, and that is to take us from the incomprehensible magnitude of Soviet lies and crimes down to a fully comprehensible one-on-one experience. By closing with a letter to his friend Christopher Hitchens and another to his one-time party-member deceased father, Amis transforms this observation of history into something infinitely closer to the bone. Through this personal familiarity, death now takes on a color different from his fiction. It is frankly, damply, intimate. We are allowed a glimpse of the other struggle, the struggle of intellect facing its own end. Here, Amis seems rounder and more humbled by experience, by real life. "The Information" is no longer abstract and confined to the printed page, it is in the air he's breathing. And because of this transformation, there passes between author and reader, a sense of something sacred. Which brings us to the final question of the book. "Zachto?", "what for?". For the Soviet experiment, there is no answer able to justify such a grotesque and utterly failed exercise of power. For the rest of us, the answer is, obviously, in recognizing the profound value of life. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amiss is not amiss *by J***D on September 7, 2002* This is one of the better works I have read on Stalin and the "Great Terror". Apart from the "Gulag" a work of infinite greatness, this is a grand essay on a moment in time. The personal touch, is almost name dropping, but it surves well when trying to demonstrate the truth of Stalin's quote, "The death of one is tragic, the death of millions is a statistic." One cannot comprehend millions of people slaughtered, but individual stories cut to the core. Who was worse, the NAZIs or Stalin? It is not just an academic question. It needs to be answered. Do we rely soley on the head count of the dead? Stalin wins. Do we rely on the brutality of the idea? Stalin wins! Do we rely solely on who was more inloved with power, self and control? Stalin wins again. It should be noted that the killings by Stalin are more random and focused on class and not solely on religion, but millions, more than 6 million Russian Christians died. A great short introduction for the neophite into the reality of Communism and why it is so important NOT to allow tyrants the chance to gain control of nations. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent, brief, literary survey of a horrific regime *by D***? on June 22, 2012* "Koba" is an affecting, concise, and well-written "author's encounter" with the primary literature of the Lenin and Stalin years. If Amis had not personalized the narrative and also attempted to make it a literary effort, it could have been a deadly dull recitation of a period of horror. Fortunately, he writes about not just the historical facts, but also about what it is for a modern person to learn about these events, and compares the large-scale tragedy to relevant events in his own life. He also draws many perceptive conclusions. For example, he suggests that it's socially acceptable to laugh at Stalinism but not at Nazism. The reason for this, he argues, is not the mere gap between propoganda and reality (a problem for any government, it seems), but the perfect opposition of Stalinist propoganda and Soviet reality. The Nazis were, to a large extent, candid about what the evil was that they were trying to commit. Stalin was claiming the triumph of a workers' paradise (the high-minded ideal of Communism), while at the same time very intentionally doing everything possible to destroy human solidarity in order to maintain and increase his own power (the triumphant apex of the reactionary low-brow). Amis calls it "negative perfection". It's hard not to have an ironic laugh, though in full solidarity, with citizens who are told that utopia has finally arrived while their children are starving to death. The horror makes all the cheerleading instantly risible, or too absurd perhaps to deserve even a jeer. But this is not to say that "Koba" lacks for factual matter. In fact it is above all a history text, with as many names and dates and specific events as most readers could possibly desire. It is simply fortunate for us that Amis doesn't leave it there, but also provides ironic, penetrating commentary, and stories and events from his own life that resonate with the grand narrative. If you don't know much about this core piece of 20th Century history, Amis's survey could be the best available place to start learning, and I think that his thoughtful insights, high-minded though fluid and energetically terse style, and meticulous care for the English language are all very impressive. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sg/products/18155648-koba-the-dread-laughter-and-the-twenty-million](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/18155648-koba-the-dread-laughter-and-the-twenty-million) --- *Product available on Desertcart Singapore* *Store origin: SG* *Last updated: 2026-05-21*