Post: #1

Phew. At more than 700 pages this book is a bit like reading War and Peace, but thankfully broken down into around 100 bite size, and usually very insightful or entertaining, pieces.

Most here will be familiar with Hitchens as a pubic intellectual, atheist, Iraq war apologist and general man about town( and lush). Maybe a bit less well known is his background, in his younger days, in left wing and communist circles in Europe. If I had one criticism of this book it would be that it reflects this background a bit too much. It feels to the reader that nearly every other essay is about a leading light of this era and background. To younger readers, who grew up entirely after the “defeat” of communism Hitchens angst about various communist issues, like Stalins purges seems more like a history lesson, though to Hitchens of course discussion of these types of issues were very very much related to the here and now.

The book is a collection of essays by Hitchens, most of which were originally published in Vanity Fair or The Atlantic. They are grouped in sections, as they would have to be, but the section headings aren't very descriptive, and most essays could easily appear in any other section without it really being noticed. A lot of the essays are (very) mini-biographies of leading lights of the literary left, and occasionally right. This format works quite well in that it allows Hitchens to discuss broader historical issues, but viewed through the familiar lens of a famous author or historical figure. For example, one essay on the surface is a book review of Viktor Klemperer’s The Lesser Evil: Diaries 1945-1959, but says very little about that book itself. Instead it chronicles Klemperer’s life. First as a converted (to Christianity) Jew in Nazi Germay, and later as a sort of urbane misfit in East Germany, which he chose over living in the West. All this in the context of the morality of the carpet bombing, by the Allies, of Klemperer’s city that almost killed him just shy of his liberation. All very interesting, but someone looking to read about the book being reviewed itself will be disappointed.

It’s not all about literary figures and history though. There are scathing entries on Western Islamic Appologists (In “Stand Up for Denmark”), Prince Charles (In “Prince of Piffle”), and even a amusing theory that the word “Fuck” is what the British Empire will most be remembered for (In “A Very, Very Dirty Word”)

It’s not the best book of essays I’ve ever read, but Hitchens is insightful and it’s interesting to see how he comes to the conclusions he does, based on the facts he presents. It would help if you already know all or most of the authors and others he reviews, but you would have to be a very, very well read person, like Hitchens was, for this to be the case. But I suppose the internet can always give you a brief background of someone he is discussing so you are not totally in the dark.

I can recommend that you read this book, but like me take your time and read a few entries here and there when you have the time and inclination. No need at all to read it all at once since the essays really don’t create a bigger “gestalt” for the reader, and almost all can be viewed entirely independently from the others.