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And Yet ...: Essays
Christopher Hitchens was an unparalleled, prolific writer, who raised the polemical essay to a new art form, over a lifetime of thinking and debating the defining issues of our times. As an Essayist he contributed to the New Statesman, Atlantic Monthly, London Review of Books, TLS and Vanity Fair. Any publication of a volume of Hitchens' essays was a major event on both sides of the Atlantic. Now comes the last of the last; a volume of Hitchens' previously unpublished essays, covering the themes that define Hitchens the thinker: literature, religion and politics. These essays remind us, once more, of the fierce, brilliant and trenchant voice of Christopher Hitchens.
352 pages, Paperback
First published December 10, 2013
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2781 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hitchens
163 books7,893 followersChristopher Hitchens was a British-American author, journalist, and literary critic known for his sharp wit, polemical writing, and outspoken views on religion, politics, and culture. He was a prolific essayist and columnist, contributing to publications such as The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, and The Nation.
A staunch critic of totalitarianism and organized religion, Hitchens became one of the most prominent public intellectuals of his time. His book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007) became a bestseller and solidified his place as a leading figure in the New Atheism movement. He was equally fearless in political criticism, taking on figures across the ideological spectrum, from Henry Kissinger (The Trial of Henry Kissinger, 2001) to Bill and Hillary Clinton (No One Left to Lie To, 1999).
Originally a socialist and supporter of left-wing causes, Hitchens later distanced himself from the left, particularly after the September 11 attacks, when he became a vocal advocate for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. His ideological shift, combined with his formidable debating skills, made him a controversial yet highly respected figure.
Hitchens was also known for his literary criticism, writing extensively on figures such as George Orwell, Thomas Jefferson, and Karl Marx. His memoir, Hitch-22 (2010), reflected on his personal and intellectual journey.
In 2010, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer but continued to write and speak publicly until his death in 2011. His fearless engagement with ideas, incisive arguments, and commitment to reason remain influential long after his passing.
A staunch critic of totalitarianism and organized religion, Hitchens became one of the most prominent public intellectuals of his time. His book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007) became a bestseller and solidified his place as a leading figure in the New Atheism movement. He was equally fearless in political criticism, taking on figures across the ideological spectrum, from Henry Kissinger (The Trial of Henry Kissinger, 2001) to Bill and Hillary Clinton (No One Left to Lie To, 1999).
Originally a socialist and supporter of left-wing causes, Hitchens later distanced himself from the left, particularly after the September 11 attacks, when he became a vocal advocate for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. His ideological shift, combined with his formidable debating skills, made him a controversial yet highly respected figure.
Hitchens was also known for his literary criticism, writing extensively on figures such as George Orwell, Thomas Jefferson, and Karl Marx. His memoir, Hitch-22 (2010), reflected on his personal and intellectual journey.
In 2010, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer but continued to write and speak publicly until his death in 2011. His fearless engagement with ideas, incisive arguments, and commitment to reason remain influential long after his passing.
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March 26, 2019
Christopher Hitchens on Donald Trump
"A ludicrous figure...well, he’s managed to cover 90 per cent of his head with 30 per cent of his hair. So that's an achievement.“
https://youtu.be/y1YF_ubVm3w
Christopher Hitchens on Hillary Clinton (or Donald Trump?)
"Indifferent to truth, willing to use police-state tactics and vulgar libels against inconvenient witnesses, hopeless on health care, and flippant and fast and loose with national security..."
Confessions of a Contrarian
As soon as I opened this posthumous collection of reviews and essays (originally published between 1997 and 2012), I started looking for clues as to the meaning of the title (which phrase also features in Nicole Krauss' "The History of Love").
Unfortunately, there was no introduction or preface to provide any overt guidance. Nor did I find the phrase in the body of the text. However, I suspect that the answer lies in Hitchens' notorious (and highly entertaining) contrarianism.
Across the collection, in this context, Hitchens seems to move from self-aware to self-conscious to self-deprecating.
Almost exactly halfway through, Hitchens confesses (brags?):
“Sit me down across a table with an ashtray and a bottle on it, and cue the other person to make an argument, and I am programmed by the practice of a lifetime to take a contrary position. The better he phrased it, the harder I worked to resist his case and to think of counterarguments.”
In this case, his opponent was what he calls a “smoke ender" who was trying to cure his addiction to cigarettes.
As if to prove his point, the photo of Hitchens on the front cover shows him surrounded by his breakfast accoutrements: scotch, cigarettes, coffee, apricot marmalade, an ashtray, newspapers and a review copy of “Jeeves in the Morning” (his 1999 Guardian review of which doesn't feature in this volume).
He explains his addictions:
“Most of my bad habits are connected with the only way I know to make a living. In order to keep reading and writing, I need the junky energy that scotch can provide, and the intense short-term concentration that nicotine can help supply.”
He admits to no genuine regret:
“A glass of refreshment, in my view, never hurt anybody...Smoking is a vice, I will admit, but one has to have a hobby.”
The Telling Phrase
Hitchens says of Clive James, “He has a gift for noticing and highlighting the telling phrase.”
Likewise, Hitchens’ assessment of Arthur Schlesinger Jr's journals could almost apply to his own articles:
“[They] are humorous and often even witty, and show an eye for the telling detail and the encapsulating anecdote.”
A Modicum of Rancor
In contrast, the same can't be said for this assessment:
“There is a disappointing lack of rancor here. Like Will Rogers, Schlesinger seems never to meet anyone for whom he can't find a good word.”
Hitchens seems never to encounter anyone for whom he can't find a bon mot.
Orwell and Hitchens
Hitchens is even more admiring of George Orwell, who wrote presciently:
“When I talk to anyone or read the writings of anyone who has an axe to grind, I feel that intellectual honesty and balanced judgement have simply disappeared from the face of the earth. Everyone's thought is forensic, everyone is simply putting a ‘case’ with deliberate suppression of his opponent's point of view, and, what is more, with complete insensitiveness to any sufferings except those of himself and his friends.”
Orwell and Hitchens both oppose imperialism, colonial power, “clerical repression", the British establishment and “the days of a white-ruled globe".
Resistance to Deceit and Coercion
Like Hitchens himself would later do, Orwell “puts up a resistance to deceit and coercion,” the "constant encroachments of propaganda and euphemism," and “the deliberate distortion and even obliteration of recent history.”
Confronted with a specious argument, even by somebody he might otherwise agree with, I suspect he would express his concurrence, and then follow it with a qualification “...and yet..."
...And Yet...
Overall, I find myself in greater agreement with Hitchens on literary matters than contemporary politics, whether American, British or global. His global politics all seem to derive from the legacy of failed imperialist causes that resulted in the division of the Middle East and the establishment of the state of Israel.
His scorn for left liberals, in turn, reflects their confused and belated response to the chaos that ensued. His disdain for Bill and Hillary Clinton (a “dysfunctional clan"), and perhaps even Obama, effectively prevents him sympathising with any of their causes, and thus tends to find him a bedfellow with some strange neoconservatives.
SOUNDTRACK:
"A ludicrous figure...well, he’s managed to cover 90 per cent of his head with 30 per cent of his hair. So that's an achievement.“
https://youtu.be/y1YF_ubVm3w
Christopher Hitchens on Hillary Clinton (or Donald Trump?)
"Indifferent to truth, willing to use police-state tactics and vulgar libels against inconvenient witnesses, hopeless on health care, and flippant and fast and loose with national security..."
Confessions of a Contrarian
As soon as I opened this posthumous collection of reviews and essays (originally published between 1997 and 2012), I started looking for clues as to the meaning of the title (which phrase also features in Nicole Krauss' "The History of Love").
Unfortunately, there was no introduction or preface to provide any overt guidance. Nor did I find the phrase in the body of the text. However, I suspect that the answer lies in Hitchens' notorious (and highly entertaining) contrarianism.
Across the collection, in this context, Hitchens seems to move from self-aware to self-conscious to self-deprecating.
Almost exactly halfway through, Hitchens confesses (brags?):
“Sit me down across a table with an ashtray and a bottle on it, and cue the other person to make an argument, and I am programmed by the practice of a lifetime to take a contrary position. The better he phrased it, the harder I worked to resist his case and to think of counterarguments.”
In this case, his opponent was what he calls a “smoke ender" who was trying to cure his addiction to cigarettes.
As if to prove his point, the photo of Hitchens on the front cover shows him surrounded by his breakfast accoutrements: scotch, cigarettes, coffee, apricot marmalade, an ashtray, newspapers and a review copy of “Jeeves in the Morning” (his 1999 Guardian review of which doesn't feature in this volume).
He explains his addictions:
“Most of my bad habits are connected with the only way I know to make a living. In order to keep reading and writing, I need the junky energy that scotch can provide, and the intense short-term concentration that nicotine can help supply.”
He admits to no genuine regret:
“A glass of refreshment, in my view, never hurt anybody...Smoking is a vice, I will admit, but one has to have a hobby.”
The Telling Phrase
Hitchens says of Clive James, “He has a gift for noticing and highlighting the telling phrase.”
Likewise, Hitchens’ assessment of Arthur Schlesinger Jr's journals could almost apply to his own articles:
“[They] are humorous and often even witty, and show an eye for the telling detail and the encapsulating anecdote.”
A Modicum of Rancor
In contrast, the same can't be said for this assessment:
“There is a disappointing lack of rancor here. Like Will Rogers, Schlesinger seems never to meet anyone for whom he can't find a good word.”
Hitchens seems never to encounter anyone for whom he can't find a bon mot.
Orwell and Hitchens
Hitchens is even more admiring of George Orwell, who wrote presciently:
“When I talk to anyone or read the writings of anyone who has an axe to grind, I feel that intellectual honesty and balanced judgement have simply disappeared from the face of the earth. Everyone's thought is forensic, everyone is simply putting a ‘case’ with deliberate suppression of his opponent's point of view, and, what is more, with complete insensitiveness to any sufferings except those of himself and his friends.”
Orwell and Hitchens both oppose imperialism, colonial power, “clerical repression", the British establishment and “the days of a white-ruled globe".
Resistance to Deceit and Coercion
Like Hitchens himself would later do, Orwell “puts up a resistance to deceit and coercion,” the "constant encroachments of propaganda and euphemism," and “the deliberate distortion and even obliteration of recent history.”
Confronted with a specious argument, even by somebody he might otherwise agree with, I suspect he would express his concurrence, and then follow it with a qualification “...and yet..."
...And Yet...
Overall, I find myself in greater agreement with Hitchens on literary matters than contemporary politics, whether American, British or global. His global politics all seem to derive from the legacy of failed imperialist causes that resulted in the division of the Middle East and the establishment of the state of Israel.
His scorn for left liberals, in turn, reflects their confused and belated response to the chaos that ensued. His disdain for Bill and Hillary Clinton (a “dysfunctional clan"), and perhaps even Obama, effectively prevents him sympathising with any of their causes, and thus tends to find him a bedfellow with some strange neoconservatives.
SOUNDTRACK:
December 30, 2016
In Contrast ...
I loved the primary collection of Hitchens' essays Arguably. It's probably my favorite collection of essays of all time, certainly by anyone in the past half century. What a brilliant mind.
In contrast, the essays in and yet... are the Hitchens essays and articles not chosen for "Arguably." For good reason. These are either not as sharp and witty or cover subjects that aren't as intriguing.
If you're a fan of Hitchens however, I recommend you get these. I enjoyed most of them immensely, despite my disagreement with his views on religion. After all, an essay by Christopher Hitchens, not at his sharpest or wittiest, is better than those penned by the best of the muckrakers still living.
I loved the primary collection of Hitchens' essays Arguably. It's probably my favorite collection of essays of all time, certainly by anyone in the past half century. What a brilliant mind.
In contrast, the essays in and yet... are the Hitchens essays and articles not chosen for "Arguably." For good reason. These are either not as sharp and witty or cover subjects that aren't as intriguing.
If you're a fan of Hitchens however, I recommend you get these. I enjoyed most of them immensely, despite my disagreement with his views on religion. After all, an essay by Christopher Hitchens, not at his sharpest or wittiest, is better than those penned by the best of the muckrakers still living.
April 6, 2023
Herein we observe the endlessly curious, capacious mind of Mr. Hitchens as it roams over and ruminates upon the intellectual giants and moral midgets of the 20th century all alike, and the result is kinda breath-taking, or exhausting, as the reader wonders at and traipses after and vainly tries to keep up with the dude in his tireless crying of this lot of 49 pieces of journalistic silver and (often) gold.
The long-ish pieces on Che Guevara, Ariana Fallaci, and George Orwell are worth the price of admission alone, and excellent reviews of books by Salman Rushdie (Shalimar the Clown), A.N. Wilson (The Victorians), and Clive James (Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts); of books on V.S Naipaul, Rosa Luxemburg, Paul Scott, Gertrude Bell (of Iraq, 1919 fame), the 1956 Hungarian Revolt, and (again) Orwell (Diaries) only sweeten the pot.
Add to all that some of what you might expect from CH in ethical scourge mode: merciless-but-measured eviscerations of baddies Arthur Schlesinger, Colin Powell, Cold War Liberalism, the Turkish genocide of Armenians, and Hezbollah all bring the required moral indignation quotient, and thensome. (Plus the expected dig at the Clintons!)
What you don't expect is self-deprecation, perhaps, but three mordantly humourous examinations of his own corpus (not his body-of-work: his actual body...this be pre-cancer, but post- much cigarette and alcohol abuse) led this reader, at least, to tears, wishing the Hitch were still with us to get mad at and be entertained and instructed by.
If anything, this long book is somewhat too short: numerous essays, taken from his Vanity Fair columns, just end for no intellectually-apropriate reason, when by rights they should continue on (and on, and on, and on).
The long-ish pieces on Che Guevara, Ariana Fallaci, and George Orwell are worth the price of admission alone, and excellent reviews of books by Salman Rushdie (Shalimar the Clown), A.N. Wilson (The Victorians), and Clive James (Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts); of books on V.S Naipaul, Rosa Luxemburg, Paul Scott, Gertrude Bell (of Iraq, 1919 fame), the 1956 Hungarian Revolt, and (again) Orwell (Diaries) only sweeten the pot.
Add to all that some of what you might expect from CH in ethical scourge mode: merciless-but-measured eviscerations of baddies Arthur Schlesinger, Colin Powell, Cold War Liberalism, the Turkish genocide of Armenians, and Hezbollah all bring the required moral indignation quotient, and thensome. (Plus the expected dig at the Clintons!)
What you don't expect is self-deprecation, perhaps, but three mordantly humourous examinations of his own corpus (not his body-of-work: his actual body...this be pre-cancer, but post- much cigarette and alcohol abuse) led this reader, at least, to tears, wishing the Hitch were still with us to get mad at and be entertained and instructed by.
If anything, this long book is somewhat too short: numerous essays, taken from his Vanity Fair columns, just end for no intellectually-apropriate reason, when by rights they should continue on (and on, and on, and on).
August 10, 2016
Forget Jesus, Hitchens needs to come back.
As always, a profoundly intelligent collection of essays, written in typical Hitchens style, with the sarcasm and cinicism and objective ability of the journalist that he is (I refuse to refer to him using past terms). Every praise on him is redundant - he is a master wordsmith and he can never be anything less than exceptional in his writing. In this collection you will find politics ("The Case Against Hillary Clinton" makes a lot of sense now), economy, literature (Orwell, Dickens) and some gems of essays on him getting a brazilian wax and going through a year-long period of trying to change his vice-ridden life.
His mind is a palace that I would love to visit.
As always, a profoundly intelligent collection of essays, written in typical Hitchens style, with the sarcasm and cinicism and objective ability of the journalist that he is (I refuse to refer to him using past terms). Every praise on him is redundant - he is a master wordsmith and he can never be anything less than exceptional in his writing. In this collection you will find politics ("The Case Against Hillary Clinton" makes a lot of sense now), economy, literature (Orwell, Dickens) and some gems of essays on him getting a brazilian wax and going through a year-long period of trying to change his vice-ridden life.
His mind is a palace that I would love to visit.
August 10, 2023
The essay is probably my favorite literary genre, and Hitchens is certainly a fine essayist, but I just don’t like Christopher Hitchens as a human being. More often than not, I chose not to read his monthly essays in The Atlantic, a magazine I read cover-to-cover for a couple of decades—minus a bunch of Hitchens essays.
A self-confessed contrarian, he seems to have been on both sides of just about every issue of our time. He came out very often on the wrong side of history. He pilloried Bill Clinton at every turn, as if Clinton were a hated dictator instead of a flawed president popularly elected two times who probably could have done a lot more good if he didn’t suffer through two terms of intense investigation by the Right. If you want to blame anyone for Clinton’s three huge mistakes (welfare reform, NAFTA, and repeal of financial laws), Hitchens certainly could be on that list. Had Clinton enjoyed only normal scrutiny, I doubt he would have bowed down to Republicans on these issues.
What sort of child doesn’t understand that in America we have to choose the lesser of two evils? No one really likes Hilary Clinton, but the alternative is almost unthinkably worse. Hitchens had a pathological hatred of both Bill and his wife, and now we are stuck with a half-wit who lowered taxes once again for the richest Americans. In one essay, Hitchens quotes Orwell on the three main issues of the 20th century: fascism, Stalinism, and imperialism. In the 21st century we have one major issue and most other societal ills spring from it: the rise of the hyper-rich, a subject Hitchens never touched upon.
Hitchens lashed out at many figures, but he saved most of his vitriol for some of the much lesser villains in modern society. I couldn’t give a shit about Mother Teresa, a relic left over from our medieval past, but she wasn’t exactly Lex Luther (or George W. Bush).
So yeah, fuck Hitchens.
He was also a cheerleader for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. So, fuck him again. He was yet another pundit who had whipped himself into a frenzy after 9/11 and was out to show everyone what a patriot he was by beating the drum along with the right-wing nut-jobs who couldn’t wait to go to war. The trouble was that they were all terrible chess players who couldn’t think two moves ahead, namely, what do we do once we invade a sovereign Middle East country?
You’ll notice that none of his essays included here are on the Iraq War, a subject I’m sure that he would have liked to forget, or he would have liked if everyone forgot what a moron he was about every aspect of the our belligerency.
Instead of Hitchens, I faithfully read James Fallows in The Atlantic who was absolutely right about everything concerning our disastrous war in Iraq. Hitchens continued his support for the war until the end of U.S. involvement in that country.
His essays “On the Limits of Self-Improvement” were difficult to read seeing that his flippant attitude about his health led directly to his death at age 62—I’m 61 and can still do ten clean pull-ups.
Sorry, but smoking cigarettes is for the very weak-willed, like being a meth-head. There is no way that a smoker enjoys every cigarette in his or her day. Perhaps two or maybe three give pleasure, the rest are simply feeding a horrible addiction. So why not limit yourself to two cigarettes a day? Besides, cigarettes are made from the worst tobacco in the world.
Had he smoked a decent cigar once in a while instead of huffing packs of cigarettes every day, he would have lived longer. He could have gone on to be completely wrong about even more important issues.
Hitchens really only came into vogue when he grabbed on to the coattails of Richard Dawkins and his crusade in defense of atheism.
A self-confessed contrarian, he seems to have been on both sides of just about every issue of our time. He came out very often on the wrong side of history. He pilloried Bill Clinton at every turn, as if Clinton were a hated dictator instead of a flawed president popularly elected two times who probably could have done a lot more good if he didn’t suffer through two terms of intense investigation by the Right. If you want to blame anyone for Clinton’s three huge mistakes (welfare reform, NAFTA, and repeal of financial laws), Hitchens certainly could be on that list. Had Clinton enjoyed only normal scrutiny, I doubt he would have bowed down to Republicans on these issues.
What sort of child doesn’t understand that in America we have to choose the lesser of two evils? No one really likes Hilary Clinton, but the alternative is almost unthinkably worse. Hitchens had a pathological hatred of both Bill and his wife, and now we are stuck with a half-wit who lowered taxes once again for the richest Americans. In one essay, Hitchens quotes Orwell on the three main issues of the 20th century: fascism, Stalinism, and imperialism. In the 21st century we have one major issue and most other societal ills spring from it: the rise of the hyper-rich, a subject Hitchens never touched upon.
Hitchens lashed out at many figures, but he saved most of his vitriol for some of the much lesser villains in modern society. I couldn’t give a shit about Mother Teresa, a relic left over from our medieval past, but she wasn’t exactly Lex Luther (or George W. Bush).
So yeah, fuck Hitchens.
He was also a cheerleader for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. So, fuck him again. He was yet another pundit who had whipped himself into a frenzy after 9/11 and was out to show everyone what a patriot he was by beating the drum along with the right-wing nut-jobs who couldn’t wait to go to war. The trouble was that they were all terrible chess players who couldn’t think two moves ahead, namely, what do we do once we invade a sovereign Middle East country?
You’ll notice that none of his essays included here are on the Iraq War, a subject I’m sure that he would have liked to forget, or he would have liked if everyone forgot what a moron he was about every aspect of the our belligerency.
Instead of Hitchens, I faithfully read James Fallows in The Atlantic who was absolutely right about everything concerning our disastrous war in Iraq. Hitchens continued his support for the war until the end of U.S. involvement in that country.
His essays “On the Limits of Self-Improvement” were difficult to read seeing that his flippant attitude about his health led directly to his death at age 62—I’m 61 and can still do ten clean pull-ups.
Sorry, but smoking cigarettes is for the very weak-willed, like being a meth-head. There is no way that a smoker enjoys every cigarette in his or her day. Perhaps two or maybe three give pleasure, the rest are simply feeding a horrible addiction. So why not limit yourself to two cigarettes a day? Besides, cigarettes are made from the worst tobacco in the world.
Had he smoked a decent cigar once in a while instead of huffing packs of cigarettes every day, he would have lived longer. He could have gone on to be completely wrong about even more important issues.
Hitchens really only came into vogue when he grabbed on to the coattails of Richard Dawkins and his crusade in defense of atheism.
January 25, 2020
I've never read much by Hitchens before, but I've read some about him. He's supposed to be a prolific contrarian. Looking at the ToC of this collection of essays is a bit daunting. A lot of touchy subjects I know little about due to my ignorance, distrust of the information/reporting, complexity of the situation, & lack of influence. All of which has led to little interest on my part. Anyway, I'll listen to them until they bore me & move on to another.
Well, that's what I thought I'd do, but I didn't. I've taken breaks to listen to other books in between, but only because he gives me so much to think about. He's well informed, on point, & logical in each topic he tackles. Never a wasted word & each used to great effect, yet completely understandable. (The last is a crack at Ayn Rand who often makes me look up secondary definitions for $5 words. Occasionally fun, but wearing.)
Highly recommended in any format, but if you get the audiobook as I did, I do suggest a text copy. There were a lot of points I wanted to go back, ponder, & do some more research on.
Here's the ToC & I may put a comment after some of the articles.
Table of Contents
Epigraph
Che Guevara: Goodbye to All That - He shows the complicated man in a thumbnail sketch. Nice. Most paint him as a monochrome figure.
Orwell’s List - I finished reading 1984 just before starting this book. Perfect timing to get a deeper understanding of Orwell's thinking.
Orhan Pamuk: Mind the Gap
Bring on the Mud
Ohio’s Odd Numbers I had no idea our elections were so fraught with problems.
On Becoming American He's the finest kind of immigrant.
Mikhail Lermontov: A Doomed Young Man
Salman Rushdie: Hobbes in the Himalayas
My Red-State Odyssey I live in a Red state (KY) & found this both funny & true.
The Turkey Has Landed Great even if he's a food snob. He doesn't like turkey?!!! He thinks stuffing & cranberry sauce are swill?!!! Still, he's right that it's an excellent holiday, free from the religious bullshit that surrounds Xmas.
Bah, Humbug The Christian's New Testament Gospels have 3 different dates for Jesus' birth, none of which is 25Dec. It certainly shouldn't be a Christian holiday nor start until AFTER THANKSGIVING. It should be a cheery time to stave off the darkest days of the year & there's no reason not to celebrate multiple ways. I was bombarded for Xmas shopping before Halloween this year. Bugger off.
A. N. Wilson: Downhill All the Way
Ian Fleming: Bottoms Up Some people take fiction too seriously, including Hitchens, in this instance.
Power Suits
Blood for No Oil!
How Uninviting
Look Who’s Cutting and Running Now
Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview I'm really sorry I wasn't aware of her while she was alive.
Imperial Follies
Clive James: The Omnivore
Gertrude Bell: The Woman Who Made Iraq I've never heard of her. Now I want to know more. She gave Lawrence of Arabia a run.
Physician, Heal Thyself
Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part I: Of Vice and Men
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part II: Vice and Versa
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part III: Mission
I set these apart because they're a one theme & a real hoot, especially if you're a male about 60 years old which I am. His trials at quitting smoking & getting in shape were hilarious. The Brazilian bikini wax was... wow. I'd never heard of it before. Now that I have, I can't get the image out of my mind. Shudder!
Accomplished isn't in my ebook. I don't recall anything about it.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Price of Freedom
Arthur Schlesinger: The Courtier
Paul Scott: Victoria’s Secret
The Case against Hillary Clinton is a good one & he manages to nail the Bush administration, too.
The Tall Tale of Tuzla Another whack at Hillary, very well deserved.
V. S. Naipaul: Cruel and Unusual I've never heard of him & have no interest, but I really liked There will always be those—I am one of them—who are determined not to have authors and writers judged by their private or personal shortcomings. But there is a limit... Agreed!
No Regrets How would the Democrats have reacted to 9/11 - better or worse than Bush did? He thinks far worse for all that he didn't vote for the man.
Barack Obama: Cool Cat
The Lovely Stones great look at the Parthenon
Edward M. Kennedy: Redemption Song
Engaging with Iran Is Like Having Sex with Someone Who
Hates You
Colin Powell: Powell Valediction
Shut Up about Armenians or We’ll Hurt Them Again Wow.
Hezbollah’s Progress
The Politicians We Deserve
Rosa Luxemburg: Red Rosa What a lady! I'd never heard of her before.
Joan Didion: Blue Nights
The True Spirit of Christmas
Charles Dickens’s Inner Child He almost makes me want to try reading Dickens again. Almost. I keep trying but find his writing impenetrable.
G. K. Chesterton: The Reactionary
The Importance of Being Orwell Since I just read 1984, I found this of special interest.
What Is Patriotism? Basically tribalism & Hitchens thinks ..."internationalism is the highest form of patriotism."
About Christopher Hitchens
Well, that's what I thought I'd do, but I didn't. I've taken breaks to listen to other books in between, but only because he gives me so much to think about. He's well informed, on point, & logical in each topic he tackles. Never a wasted word & each used to great effect, yet completely understandable. (The last is a crack at Ayn Rand who often makes me look up secondary definitions for $5 words. Occasionally fun, but wearing.)
Highly recommended in any format, but if you get the audiobook as I did, I do suggest a text copy. There were a lot of points I wanted to go back, ponder, & do some more research on.
Here's the ToC & I may put a comment after some of the articles.
Table of Contents
Epigraph
Che Guevara: Goodbye to All That - He shows the complicated man in a thumbnail sketch. Nice. Most paint him as a monochrome figure.
Orwell’s List - I finished reading 1984 just before starting this book. Perfect timing to get a deeper understanding of Orwell's thinking.
Orhan Pamuk: Mind the Gap
Bring on the Mud
Ohio’s Odd Numbers I had no idea our elections were so fraught with problems.
On Becoming American He's the finest kind of immigrant.
Mikhail Lermontov: A Doomed Young Man
Salman Rushdie: Hobbes in the Himalayas
My Red-State Odyssey I live in a Red state (KY) & found this both funny & true.
The Turkey Has Landed Great even if he's a food snob. He doesn't like turkey?!!! He thinks stuffing & cranberry sauce are swill?!!! Still, he's right that it's an excellent holiday, free from the religious bullshit that surrounds Xmas.
Bah, Humbug The Christian's New Testament Gospels have 3 different dates for Jesus' birth, none of which is 25Dec. It certainly shouldn't be a Christian holiday nor start until AFTER THANKSGIVING. It should be a cheery time to stave off the darkest days of the year & there's no reason not to celebrate multiple ways. I was bombarded for Xmas shopping before Halloween this year. Bugger off.
A. N. Wilson: Downhill All the Way
Ian Fleming: Bottoms Up Some people take fiction too seriously, including Hitchens, in this instance.
Power Suits
Blood for No Oil!
How Uninviting
Look Who’s Cutting and Running Now
Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview I'm really sorry I wasn't aware of her while she was alive.
Imperial Follies
Clive James: The Omnivore
Gertrude Bell: The Woman Who Made Iraq I've never heard of her. Now I want to know more. She gave Lawrence of Arabia a run.
Physician, Heal Thyself
Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part I: Of Vice and Men
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part II: Vice and Versa
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part III: Mission
I set these apart because they're a one theme & a real hoot, especially if you're a male about 60 years old which I am. His trials at quitting smoking & getting in shape were hilarious. The Brazilian bikini wax was... wow. I'd never heard of it before. Now that I have, I can't get the image out of my mind. Shudder!
Accomplished isn't in my ebook. I don't recall anything about it.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Price of Freedom
Arthur Schlesinger: The Courtier
Paul Scott: Victoria’s Secret
The Case against Hillary Clinton is a good one & he manages to nail the Bush administration, too.
The Tall Tale of Tuzla Another whack at Hillary, very well deserved.
V. S. Naipaul: Cruel and Unusual I've never heard of him & have no interest, but I really liked There will always be those—I am one of them—who are determined not to have authors and writers judged by their private or personal shortcomings. But there is a limit... Agreed!
No Regrets How would the Democrats have reacted to 9/11 - better or worse than Bush did? He thinks far worse for all that he didn't vote for the man.
Barack Obama: Cool Cat
The Lovely Stones great look at the Parthenon
Edward M. Kennedy: Redemption Song
Engaging with Iran Is Like Having Sex with Someone Who
Hates You
Colin Powell: Powell Valediction
Shut Up about Armenians or We’ll Hurt Them Again Wow.
Hezbollah’s Progress
The Politicians We Deserve
Rosa Luxemburg: Red Rosa What a lady! I'd never heard of her before.
Joan Didion: Blue Nights
The True Spirit of Christmas
Charles Dickens’s Inner Child He almost makes me want to try reading Dickens again. Almost. I keep trying but find his writing impenetrable.
G. K. Chesterton: The Reactionary
The Importance of Being Orwell Since I just read 1984, I found this of special interest.
What Is Patriotism? Basically tribalism & Hitchens thinks ..."internationalism is the highest form of patriotism."
About Christopher Hitchens
May 19, 2020
I was raised in a big family and after a mostly forgotten year enrolled at a Christian kindergarten in Phoenix, Arizona, I was homeschooled up until the time I was 18. Up until that age, social encounters for me involved attending the youth group at my church — though I was far too shy to actually go up and talk to anyone — and having a can of Coke with the elderly couple whose yard I maintained. It was, along with babysitting at the aforementioned church, my first job, and then 18 came and suddenly I was thrust out into the world, starting college and getting a part time job, at Starbucks, more or less at the same time.
It was jarring, to say the least. I had no social skills to speak of, and were it not for the five siblings I'd spent nearly my entire life with, the thought of actually interacting with people my own age would have sent tremors through me. Instead, growing up, it was only talking to girls my own age that did this.
When I tell people about growing up, which is rarely necessary these days, I skip over many of the stranger details, but inevitably I'll be asked why my parents made the decision to homeschool my siblings and me. For religious reasons, I invariably reply. For my parents were confident that were any of us to actually attend school, never mind a public school — the old terror momentarily fills me just by writing the word — we would certainly be corrupted and found injecting heroin in the bathroom, while simultaneously engaged in promiscuous sex, of course (funny how they always said the word "sex" with "promiscuous" in front of it ... there simply was no other kind).
Likewise, I recall from a young age being informed by my father what scoundrels Democrats were, all of them. There simply were no good Democrats. "Liberal" was an even worse word.
At some point in the mid-90s, my sister and I both had a job walking the neighbor's dogs. We were thrilled at the prospect of each earning $5 on a daily basis and the neighbor was a lovely woman. She was younger, in her 30s, and recovering from breast cancer. I remember my sister and I wondering aloud why she didn't have hair, something that I only later realized was from the chemotherapy she endured.
That job lasted for a few weeks, as I remember, until one day she knocked on our door to pay us for the last week and my dad answered. Before I knew it, the two were in the midst of a heated argument. "You're a teacher, right?" I can still remember my father saying in his accusatory way. "Of course you support Clinton."
So it was that it wasn't until I started college that I was really exposed to any new ideas. Or at least, any new ideas that weren't immediately labeled by my parents as somehow "immoral." It was during this time that a friend and I were invited to an event a nearby university was putting on, a debate on religion featuring Christopher Hitchens and the, now very disgraced, evangelical Christian Dinesh D'Souza.
I didn't really know much about Hitchens at the time, but I very much recognized my father, or rather, his ideas, in the conservative D'Souza.
Needless to say, D'Souza never stood a chance.
Following the event, I was able to speak with Hitchens a bit, and got a copy of his book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, which he was kind enough to sign. It was a formative experience, to be sure, as the encounter and my subsequent readings and conversations led many of the ideas I'd formed up through my adolescence to fall away.
I have since gone quite the other way. I'm an atheist, though not as militant about it as perhaps I once was, and am as far from a Republican as its likely to get in this day and age. I know many who have experienced a similar transformation, to the point that I often joke that the surest way that parents can ensure liberal, atheist adults is to try and raise them to be close-minded, religious zealots.
Unlike the aforementioned "god is Not Great" and his other collection of essays, Arguably: Selected Essays, only two or three of the essays in "And Yet" actually deal with religion at all. Some deal with American politics, and feel somewhat dated as a result, while most are book reviews that double as profiles of famous individuals.
One thing I do like about Hitchens is that his book reviews are only occasionally about the books themselves and more often an excuse for him to spout off on whatever the topic of the book is.
I can't help but wonder what Hitchens would say if he were alive now, in 2020 — the age of coronavirus, Trump, Brexit, economic migration, and border walls. That we don't have his knowledge, his blistering scorn, and, most of all, his miraculous wit highlighting the issues of the day is a great loss.
But reading his past works, feeling the weight of his words on the topics of yesterday, lend us perhaps some insight into all that he might have said.
It was jarring, to say the least. I had no social skills to speak of, and were it not for the five siblings I'd spent nearly my entire life with, the thought of actually interacting with people my own age would have sent tremors through me. Instead, growing up, it was only talking to girls my own age that did this.
When I tell people about growing up, which is rarely necessary these days, I skip over many of the stranger details, but inevitably I'll be asked why my parents made the decision to homeschool my siblings and me. For religious reasons, I invariably reply. For my parents were confident that were any of us to actually attend school, never mind a public school — the old terror momentarily fills me just by writing the word — we would certainly be corrupted and found injecting heroin in the bathroom, while simultaneously engaged in promiscuous sex, of course (funny how they always said the word "sex" with "promiscuous" in front of it ... there simply was no other kind).
Likewise, I recall from a young age being informed by my father what scoundrels Democrats were, all of them. There simply were no good Democrats. "Liberal" was an even worse word.
At some point in the mid-90s, my sister and I both had a job walking the neighbor's dogs. We were thrilled at the prospect of each earning $5 on a daily basis and the neighbor was a lovely woman. She was younger, in her 30s, and recovering from breast cancer. I remember my sister and I wondering aloud why she didn't have hair, something that I only later realized was from the chemotherapy she endured.
That job lasted for a few weeks, as I remember, until one day she knocked on our door to pay us for the last week and my dad answered. Before I knew it, the two were in the midst of a heated argument. "You're a teacher, right?" I can still remember my father saying in his accusatory way. "Of course you support Clinton."
So it was that it wasn't until I started college that I was really exposed to any new ideas. Or at least, any new ideas that weren't immediately labeled by my parents as somehow "immoral." It was during this time that a friend and I were invited to an event a nearby university was putting on, a debate on religion featuring Christopher Hitchens and the, now very disgraced, evangelical Christian Dinesh D'Souza.
I didn't really know much about Hitchens at the time, but I very much recognized my father, or rather, his ideas, in the conservative D'Souza.
Needless to say, D'Souza never stood a chance.
Following the event, I was able to speak with Hitchens a bit, and got a copy of his book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, which he was kind enough to sign. It was a formative experience, to be sure, as the encounter and my subsequent readings and conversations led many of the ideas I'd formed up through my adolescence to fall away.
I have since gone quite the other way. I'm an atheist, though not as militant about it as perhaps I once was, and am as far from a Republican as its likely to get in this day and age. I know many who have experienced a similar transformation, to the point that I often joke that the surest way that parents can ensure liberal, atheist adults is to try and raise them to be close-minded, religious zealots.
Unlike the aforementioned "god is Not Great" and his other collection of essays, Arguably: Selected Essays, only two or three of the essays in "And Yet" actually deal with religion at all. Some deal with American politics, and feel somewhat dated as a result, while most are book reviews that double as profiles of famous individuals.
One thing I do like about Hitchens is that his book reviews are only occasionally about the books themselves and more often an excuse for him to spout off on whatever the topic of the book is.
I can't help but wonder what Hitchens would say if he were alive now, in 2020 — the age of coronavirus, Trump, Brexit, economic migration, and border walls. That we don't have his knowledge, his blistering scorn, and, most of all, his miraculous wit highlighting the issues of the day is a great loss.
But reading his past works, feeling the weight of his words on the topics of yesterday, lend us perhaps some insight into all that he might have said.
August 26, 2019
Anthology of Hitchens' reviews and published opinion pieces.
Witty, incisive, and at times more than a bit sharp. I'm sure there are wonderful reviews of this book, but this is not one. I really enjoyed reading it, pondering Hitchens approach and argument, even when I didn't necessarily agree with everything he said. I also walk away from this with 5 more books added to my TBR. Cheers!
Witty, incisive, and at times more than a bit sharp. I'm sure there are wonderful reviews of this book, but this is not one. I really enjoyed reading it, pondering Hitchens approach and argument, even when I didn't necessarily agree with everything he said. I also walk away from this with 5 more books added to my TBR. Cheers!
Currently reading
June 18, 2021Got this from a visit to my library.This is the hardback version. More people need to read Hitchens. I see Christopher Hitchens more as a practical philosopher than anything. He was also brilliant at arguing his point, and dismantling religious dogma. I wish him and people like Frank Zappa had been alive to comment on Trump's term in office.
Contents
Che Guevara: Goodbye to All That - Page 1
Orwell's List - Page 19
Orhan Pamuk :Mind the Gap - Page 29
Bring on the Mud - Page 39
Ohio's Odd Numbers - Page 45
On Becoming American - Page 53
Mikhail Lermontov: A Doomed Young man - Page 57
Salman Rushdie: Hobbes in the Himalayas - Page 63
My Red-State Odyssey - Page 71
The Turkey Has Landed - Page 83
Bah, Humbug - Page 87
A.N. Wilson: Downhill All the Way - Page 91
Ian Fleming: Bottoms Up - Page 97
Power Suits - Page 105
Blood for No Oil! - Page 115
How Uninviting - Page 123
Look Who's Cutting and Running Now - Page 127
Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview - Page 131
Imperial Follies - Page 141
Clive James: The Omnivore - Page 147
Gertrude Bell: The Woman Who Made Iraq - Page 153
Physician, Heal Thyself - Page 159
Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion - Page 163
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part 1: Of Vice and Men - Page 169
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part 2: Vice and Versa - Page 177
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part 3: Mission Accomplished - Page 185
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Price of Freedom - Page 193
Arthur Schlesinger: The Courtier - Page 197
Paul Scott: Victoria's Secret - Page 203
The Case against Hillary Clinton211
The Tall Tale of Tuzla - Page 215
V.S. Naipaul: Cruel and Unusual - Page 217
No Regrets - Page 225
Barack Obama: Cool Cat - Page 229
The Lovely Stones - Page 235
Edward M. Kennedy: Redemption Song - Page 243
Engaging with Iran Is Like Having Sex with Someone Who Hates You - Page 247
Colin Powell: Powell Valediction - Page 251
Shut Up about Armenians, or We'll Hurt Them Again - Page 261
Hezbollah's Progress - Page 265
The Politicians We Deserve - Page 269
Rosa Luxemburg: Red Rosa - Page 273
Joan Didion: Blue Nights - Page 281
The True Spirit of Christmas - Page 283
Charles Dickens's Inner Child - Page 291
G.K. Chesterton: The Reactionary - Page 299
The Importance of Being Orwell - Page 311
What Is Patriotism? - Page 321
Index - Page 323
Contents
Che Guevara: Goodbye to All That - Page 1
Orwell's List - Page 19
Orhan Pamuk :Mind the Gap - Page 29
Bring on the Mud - Page 39
Ohio's Odd Numbers - Page 45
On Becoming American - Page 53
Mikhail Lermontov: A Doomed Young man - Page 57
Salman Rushdie: Hobbes in the Himalayas - Page 63
My Red-State Odyssey - Page 71
The Turkey Has Landed - Page 83
Bah, Humbug - Page 87
A.N. Wilson: Downhill All the Way - Page 91
Ian Fleming: Bottoms Up - Page 97
Power Suits - Page 105
Blood for No Oil! - Page 115
How Uninviting - Page 123
Look Who's Cutting and Running Now - Page 127
Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview - Page 131
Imperial Follies - Page 141
Clive James: The Omnivore - Page 147
Gertrude Bell: The Woman Who Made Iraq - Page 153
Physician, Heal Thyself - Page 159
Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion - Page 163
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part 1: Of Vice and Men - Page 169
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part 2: Vice and Versa - Page 177
On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part 3: Mission Accomplished - Page 185
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Price of Freedom - Page 193
Arthur Schlesinger: The Courtier - Page 197
Paul Scott: Victoria's Secret - Page 203
The Case against Hillary Clinton211
The Tall Tale of Tuzla - Page 215
V.S. Naipaul: Cruel and Unusual - Page 217
No Regrets - Page 225
Barack Obama: Cool Cat - Page 229
The Lovely Stones - Page 235
Edward M. Kennedy: Redemption Song - Page 243
Engaging with Iran Is Like Having Sex with Someone Who Hates You - Page 247
Colin Powell: Powell Valediction - Page 251
Shut Up about Armenians, or We'll Hurt Them Again - Page 261
Hezbollah's Progress - Page 265
The Politicians We Deserve - Page 269
Rosa Luxemburg: Red Rosa - Page 273
Joan Didion: Blue Nights - Page 281
The True Spirit of Christmas - Page 283
Charles Dickens's Inner Child - Page 291
G.K. Chesterton: The Reactionary - Page 299
The Importance of Being Orwell - Page 311
What Is Patriotism? - Page 321
Index - Page 323
April 30, 2017
As an admirer of Christopher Hitchens' work, this collection of essays which were primarily reviews is essential reading. You cannot have finished this book without being better informed and stimulated to read more of Hitchens' work as well as the people and books he writes about. I found it difficult to have finished this book knowing that there would be no more of him because of his untimely death. This is a collection I recommend strongly.
February 15, 2017
Christopher Hitchens, who died in 2011, was an essayist (or polemecist if you prefer) probably best known for his anti-religion screed God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (which I have previously reviewed). Like his hero George Orwell, Hitchens was a man of the political left whose intellectual honesty made it impossible for him to toe anybody's party line. The rise of radical Islam and what he judged to be Western intellectuals' tepid response to it sent him on a trajectory that wound up with him supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq and earned him the disdain of many of his former colleagues. Like Orwell, he retained essentially leftist instincts (and self-identification) while siding with conservatives where his principles demanded it.
That's the mark of an independent thinker, and if there's one thing we could use more of, it's independent thinkers. The essays in this collection showcase Hitchens's wit, erudition and ruthless honesty. They cover literature, politics, culture and whatever else came to mind, and even where you don't agree with Hitchens you will find him highly entertaining.
That's the mark of an independent thinker, and if there's one thing we could use more of, it's independent thinkers. The essays in this collection showcase Hitchens's wit, erudition and ruthless honesty. They cover literature, politics, culture and whatever else came to mind, and even where you don't agree with Hitchens you will find him highly entertaining.
November 30, 2015
Hitchens at his best. He makes you think more, learn more, question and laugh more. He makes you look many things and people up, to fill the holes in your knowledge, and attack the weaknesses or contradictions of your opinions. He makes you want to live better, and bigger, and never let your curiosity wane, or give in to lazy cynicism. I agree with the often quoted line about him being the best essayist since Orwell. But I closed the last page with sadness, knowing this is the final collection.
August 8, 2019
The Hitch never disappoints. The breadth of his knowledge is only matched by his eloquence and wit. He has a lot to say about a lot of subjects and he does so with such brilliance that I have often found myself googling what Hitchens had to say about an author or a book, only to later agree with him in almost all of the cases.
This collection comprises of many wonderful pieces that include book reviews, profiles, commentary on current affairs and some political essays. I enjoyed each and every one of them.
Highly recommended !
This collection comprises of many wonderful pieces that include book reviews, profiles, commentary on current affairs and some political essays. I enjoyed each and every one of them.
Highly recommended !
July 8, 2017
I’m amused by Hitchens and what I see as his contradictions and obsessions, really. Maybe that’s why I’m not a successful debater or essayist. They have to really care about the darndest particular things to illustrate their themes. For Hitchens, it was hypocrisy, ignorance, getting to the truth, moral courage in general; Mother Theresa, Kissinger, God, Christmas, etc, in particular. I do enjoy his every mot juste for every well thought out piece. He’s a loveable, politically incorrect snob fighting the good fight, laughing all the way. A misanthropic philanthropist.
On Rushdie Kashmiri characters (and every other movement or -ism I hate) “… one can feel the moment when vicious testosterone and plebian resentment combine, and when the tendrils of fascism and sadism are both uncoiled and conjoined.”
On the recalcitrant Turks: “Shut up about the Armenians or we’ll hurt them again” A society cannot reach its potential when it cannot accept its past. Germany, very well (um typical Germans, too well. Enough with the guilt). Japan, not so well. Turkey, not at all.
On his (poor) health: “The trouble with bad habits is that they are mutually reinforcing. And, just as a bank won’t lend you money unless you are too rich to need it, exercise is a pastime only for those who are already slender and physically fit. It just isn’t so much fun when you have a marked tendency to wheeze and throw up, and a cannonball of a belly sloshing around inside the baggy garments.” Ditto my husband!
“I also have to admit what I have long secretly known, which is that I positively like stress, arrange to inflict it upon myself, and sheer awkwardly away from anybody who tries to promise me a more soother or relaxed existence. Bad habits have brought me far: why change such a tried-and-true formula?” Ditto my husband!
Hitchens on Breitbart and the alt rightists/proto-fascists in general, and Trump as the Republic nominee for president in particular, would’ve been a delight! Pity he’s gone.
On Rushdie Kashmiri characters (and every other movement or -ism I hate) “… one can feel the moment when vicious testosterone and plebian resentment combine, and when the tendrils of fascism and sadism are both uncoiled and conjoined.”
On the recalcitrant Turks: “Shut up about the Armenians or we’ll hurt them again” A society cannot reach its potential when it cannot accept its past. Germany, very well (um typical Germans, too well. Enough with the guilt). Japan, not so well. Turkey, not at all.
On his (poor) health: “The trouble with bad habits is that they are mutually reinforcing. And, just as a bank won’t lend you money unless you are too rich to need it, exercise is a pastime only for those who are already slender and physically fit. It just isn’t so much fun when you have a marked tendency to wheeze and throw up, and a cannonball of a belly sloshing around inside the baggy garments.” Ditto my husband!
“I also have to admit what I have long secretly known, which is that I positively like stress, arrange to inflict it upon myself, and sheer awkwardly away from anybody who tries to promise me a more soother or relaxed existence. Bad habits have brought me far: why change such a tried-and-true formula?” Ditto my husband!
Hitchens on Breitbart and the alt rightists/proto-fascists in general, and Trump as the Republic nominee for president in particular, would’ve been a delight! Pity he’s gone.
Read
December 25, 2015Given this posthumous collection (and it is scraping the barrel, but what a damn fine barrel) was clearly timed to catch the festive book-buyers; and given Hitch, unlike fellow horseman Dawkins (who loves a good carol) hated Christmas, this volume containing two grumbles on that theme: I do wish the cover were a Jim'll Paint It image of Hitchens gatecrashing the Bethlehem nativity, fag and whisky in one hand, to flick the V at baby Jesus with the other.
January 1, 2019
Pop quiz: What percentage of 2018 did I spend thinking about what Christopher Hitchens might say on American politics if he were still alive today?
January 20, 2018
And Yet... is a collection of Hitchens articles from venues such as Slate, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and others, mostly dated from 2002 to 2012, with a few outliers. The essays are either book reviews or short commentaries on (then) current events, and what occurred to me most while reading Hitchens' thoughts on American and political life circa 2005 was how quickly this kind of material dates itself. Or maybe I was surprised to think about how far away that time period seems to me now. The presidency of George Bush, the status of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at the time, even the election of Barack Obama seems almost quaint now, which makes Hitchens' commentary (whether you agree with his politics or not) almost funny, like the way you might look at a photograph of yourself from a decade ago and laugh at the way you were dressed, even though at the time, you thought you were pretty hot.
All of which really skips over Hitchens' abilities, which there is no doubt of. I enjoyed reading the essays--Hitchens injects a lot of his demeanor into his pieces, and whether that was constructed or genuine, that personality often helps frame his point of view. (Except in the case of the Vanity Fair three-part piece On the Limits of Self-Improvement, where it seems more shtick than real.) But I doubt there are any surprises here--those who have found Hitchens' outlook entertaining will no doubt be entertained here as well. For myself, I liked this limited exposure, but I don't think I'd ever feel the need to read more of his shorter prose again (though I could probably be tempted by longer work, if it were a subject I was interested in.)
And here, in this collection, is, in a nutshell, the problem I run into with essay compilations. Book reviews and criticism are usually interesting, but homey familiar essays (which these are not) and political commentary (which these are) go stale quickly--the former because the personalities on display soon become uninteresting, and the latter because the events on display have already done so. Or, if not uninteresting, hindsight has rendered the contemporary opinion into a curiosity piece. And, revisiting events one is old enough to remember reminds one of his or her enthusiasms and worries of the time, which, like the picture of yourself in a leisure suit, are a little embarrassing to see all over again.
Fans of Hitchens will no doubt want to add this to their collection. I've not read any of his other books, but I suspect this is not his best work--posthumous collections rarely are, though I would bet it is representative, and as such, worthwhile.
All of which really skips over Hitchens' abilities, which there is no doubt of. I enjoyed reading the essays--Hitchens injects a lot of his demeanor into his pieces, and whether that was constructed or genuine, that personality often helps frame his point of view. (Except in the case of the Vanity Fair three-part piece On the Limits of Self-Improvement, where it seems more shtick than real.) But I doubt there are any surprises here--those who have found Hitchens' outlook entertaining will no doubt be entertained here as well. For myself, I liked this limited exposure, but I don't think I'd ever feel the need to read more of his shorter prose again (though I could probably be tempted by longer work, if it were a subject I was interested in.)
And here, in this collection, is, in a nutshell, the problem I run into with essay compilations. Book reviews and criticism are usually interesting, but homey familiar essays (which these are not) and political commentary (which these are) go stale quickly--the former because the personalities on display soon become uninteresting, and the latter because the events on display have already done so. Or, if not uninteresting, hindsight has rendered the contemporary opinion into a curiosity piece. And, revisiting events one is old enough to remember reminds one of his or her enthusiasms and worries of the time, which, like the picture of yourself in a leisure suit, are a little embarrassing to see all over again.
Fans of Hitchens will no doubt want to add this to their collection. I've not read any of his other books, but I suspect this is not his best work--posthumous collections rarely are, though I would bet it is representative, and as such, worthwhile.
February 20, 2019
It's hard to believe that Christopher Hitchens has been dead since 2011. A new collection of his uncollected essays, And Yet... (2015), from publications like Slate, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, among others has recently been published. I have probably read most of the entries from Slate, but most of the other essays are new to me. Hitchens has essays from a variety of interests, most of which I share. There are inspiring book reviews (Salman Rushdie's Shamilar The Clown, Georgina Howell's biography of Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations, Omar Pamuk's Snow, Clive James' Cultural Amnesia, Paul Scott'S Raj Quartet, etc.), profiles of political and cultural personalities (Che Guevera, Orianna Fallaci, A. N. Wilson, Edmund Wilson, George Orwell, etc.), political think-pieces ("Orwell's List," "Ohio's Odd Numbers," "Look Who's Cutting and Running Now," etc.), personal takes on various subjects (Christmas holidays "Bah Humbug," getting American citizenship "On Becoming an American," self-improvement ("On the Limits of Self-Improvement I-III"), etc.), and he touches on hundreds of other issues, ideas, and subjects. I always feel as though I have learned something new when reading Hitchens' essays or that I have been challenged to see something in a different light-even if it is tiresome-Hitchens' obsession with 9/11 and hatred of the Clintons ("The Case Against Hillary Clinton" and "The Tale of Tuzla"). Overall, the collection of essays is thought-provoking and entertaining, too bad there won't be any more collections now that he has died.
December 27, 2016
As ever, I miss Christopher Hitchens. This collection of articles that appeared in different publications over the years was engaging and engrossing as his writing always is. Some I had read before, some were new to me. From first impressions of Pres. Obama to further impressions of Henry Kissinger, from an essay on self-improvement, to a screed on the Christmas season, even if the subject matter is not one you may care about, Hitchens' writing makes the subject interesting.
I don't think I would recommend this book as a first foray into Hitchens' writing, it is rather a love letter to those who want more from someone who can't write anymore. I still want more.
I don't think I would recommend this book as a first foray into Hitchens' writing, it is rather a love letter to those who want more from someone who can't write anymore. I still want more.
June 9, 2021
Though some of the topics Christopher Hitchens covers in the essays collected in And Yet... may grow more obscure by the year, yet his inimitable trenchant style never allows one's interest to flag. Without a doubt, an undisputed master of the genre, and, as I would like to think, a great influence.
October 30, 2024
This final collection of Hitch essays is more of the same. Excellent, incisive, witty, educational; they make you wish you were smarter and better read...and maybe they help you with that too. It also leaves me feeling pangs of deep regret wondering where today's Hitch is when we need them?
June 8, 2016
I have been savouring this book for some time. It is the last book of his that I will read and that comes with a certain sadness. Over the years I have played a game with myself called the Dinner Party. I would imagine 8 people I would invite for dinner if I could choose from anyone, living or dead. Hitchens was on my list from the very beginning. As I have aged, many of the original guests have changed. Hitchens has never been dropped. I would want him to sit beside me so I could watch him skewer someone "just for the hell of it."
May 27, 2019
This book will appeal to staunch fans of Christopher Hitchens.
It is a diverse collection of essays, with topics that touch on political figures, political trends, contemporary authors, and more. While I appreciate the quality of Hitchens's thinking and writing, the material in this collection is too diverse overall to command (my) attention. For every essay that is enjoyable, there are several that deal with material too strange, obscure or dated for me to appreciate.
It is a diverse collection of essays, with topics that touch on political figures, political trends, contemporary authors, and more. While I appreciate the quality of Hitchens's thinking and writing, the material in this collection is too diverse overall to command (my) attention. For every essay that is enjoyable, there are several that deal with material too strange, obscure or dated for me to appreciate.
March 26, 2020
This man knows how to use words, boy oh boy. One might disagree with his views, but the book ought still be read for the fabulous turning of phrase.
A tip: keep Wikipedia close at hand, write down the book recommendations, google everything you don’t understand (which might be plenty). Worth it.
A tip: keep Wikipedia close at hand, write down the book recommendations, google everything you don’t understand (which might be plenty). Worth it.
December 31, 2015
Hitch was the best journalist and a greatest thinker of the last century. Hands down.
September 30, 2016
Several essays are timeless and timely. The piece dealing with NASCAR in the South made me laugh out loud.
April 5, 2016
When Christopher Hitchens died in December 2011, the world lost an amazing talent and voice. Hitchens wasn’t just the loud atheist, he also wrote and spoke about a variety of topics: politics, history, literature. And Yet… a collection of essays published posthumously is an excellent selection of his previously published articles, commentaries and book reviews. While I found some of the book reviews to be over my head and not all that interesting (mostly because I wasn’t familiar with the book being reviewed), most of the articles in this collection are interesting and display Hitchens’ droll humor.
He wrote a three-part series called “On the Limits of Self-Improvement” in which he attempts to do just that and chronicles his adventures for Vanity Fair. He undertakes a program that limits his drinking, eliminates his smoking, and requires exercise and healthful eating. Hitchens is not impressed with changing his routine and says, “Bad habits have brought me this far: why change such a tried-and-true formula?” Exercise, he comments, “is a pastime only for those who are already slender and physically fit” (174).
While I enjoyed his political and historical articles (I learned about Che Guevara, Oriana Fallaci, and Gertrude Bell), my favorite articles have to been his discussions of Christmas. I have many, many reasons for disliking the Christmas season, and I find that Hitchens expresses my dislike much better than I can. Plus, he has a lot of historical knowledge to supplement his reasonable complaints regarding Christmas celebrations (and all the idiotic “war against Christmas” cries).
Christopher Hitchens is an erudite and dazzling reader. I always feel like I’m embarking on my special intellectual improvement plan when I read him. He seemed to know a lot about subjects I wish I knew more of (politics and history and literature) and he had the amazing ability to retain information. Reading his books is sometimes hard brain work, but I enjoy the challenge.
He wrote a three-part series called “On the Limits of Self-Improvement” in which he attempts to do just that and chronicles his adventures for Vanity Fair. He undertakes a program that limits his drinking, eliminates his smoking, and requires exercise and healthful eating. Hitchens is not impressed with changing his routine and says, “Bad habits have brought me this far: why change such a tried-and-true formula?” Exercise, he comments, “is a pastime only for those who are already slender and physically fit” (174).
While I enjoyed his political and historical articles (I learned about Che Guevara, Oriana Fallaci, and Gertrude Bell), my favorite articles have to been his discussions of Christmas. I have many, many reasons for disliking the Christmas season, and I find that Hitchens expresses my dislike much better than I can. Plus, he has a lot of historical knowledge to supplement his reasonable complaints regarding Christmas celebrations (and all the idiotic “war against Christmas” cries).
Christopher Hitchens is an erudite and dazzling reader. I always feel like I’m embarking on my special intellectual improvement plan when I read him. He seemed to know a lot about subjects I wish I knew more of (politics and history and literature) and he had the amazing ability to retain information. Reading his books is sometimes hard brain work, but I enjoy the challenge.
February 4, 2017
Some books you read for fun, others you read to learn, still others you read to make yourself a better person. Christopher Hitchens, through his articles, manages to combine all of these goals.
This collection runs a wide breadth of Hitchens's work. It contains book reviews, political commentary, his hatred of Christmas, and moral philosophizing.
My favorites would be the anti-Christmas articles which read with a mirthful hatred for what Hitchens feels is the sudden transformation of America into a pseudo one-party state from Thanksgiving to late December. It also ends with the wonderful line "Damn them. Goddamn them, everyone."
The most intriguing would be Hitchens's commentary on the Iraq war. Hitchens was in favor of Saddam Hussein's removal from power though unlike his conservative counterparts he took this stance purely because of Saddam's horrifying human rights record. He still acknowledges the lack of WMDs and the extreme incompetence with which the conflict was run (One article talks of how the British Prime Minister had to talk Bush out of bombing a news-station). Because Hitchens refuses to be pigeon-holed he is one of the few figures who can adopt these positions (Pro-removing Saddam and yet against the conduct of the war) without having had to make himself a hypocrite.
This collection runs a wide breadth of Hitchens's work. It contains book reviews, political commentary, his hatred of Christmas, and moral philosophizing.
My favorites would be the anti-Christmas articles which read with a mirthful hatred for what Hitchens feels is the sudden transformation of America into a pseudo one-party state from Thanksgiving to late December. It also ends with the wonderful line "Damn them. Goddamn them, everyone."
The most intriguing would be Hitchens's commentary on the Iraq war. Hitchens was in favor of Saddam Hussein's removal from power though unlike his conservative counterparts he took this stance purely because of Saddam's horrifying human rights record. He still acknowledges the lack of WMDs and the extreme incompetence with which the conflict was run (One article talks of how the British Prime Minister had to talk Bush out of bombing a news-station). Because Hitchens refuses to be pigeon-holed he is one of the few figures who can adopt these positions (Pro-removing Saddam and yet against the conduct of the war) without having had to make himself a hypocrite.
December 16, 2017
So I need to begin by admitting that I did not read every essay in this collection, but I hope to return to those I skipped over.
For certainly one of Hitchens' great strengths was his prolificity. This collection includes a diatribe against Christmas that was published nine days after his death. (And several pieces after that.)
I'm not sure I wholly admired Hitchens as a person. (I met him a few times when we were both teaching in the 1990s at the University of Pittsburgh. I did not much attract his notice.) And I know I disagreed with his Orwellian dismissal of almost everything (on the most principled grounds).
But I admire his eloquence, and learning, and virtuosity. This was a man who could write sentences off the cuff that would take me hours or days to produce. In reading him, I feel like a pitcher who can't bring the heat at 95 mph, but who is watching someone who can. HItchens could be an asshole, and often is in these pages, but he is one to be reckoned with, and missed.
For certainly one of Hitchens' great strengths was his prolificity. This collection includes a diatribe against Christmas that was published nine days after his death. (And several pieces after that.)
I'm not sure I wholly admired Hitchens as a person. (I met him a few times when we were both teaching in the 1990s at the University of Pittsburgh. I did not much attract his notice.) And I know I disagreed with his Orwellian dismissal of almost everything (on the most principled grounds).
But I admire his eloquence, and learning, and virtuosity. This was a man who could write sentences off the cuff that would take me hours or days to produce. In reading him, I feel like a pitcher who can't bring the heat at 95 mph, but who is watching someone who can. HItchens could be an asshole, and often is in these pages, but he is one to be reckoned with, and missed.
October 15, 2023
I wouldn't dare attempt any real criticism of Hitchens - his essays are brilliant - but I did feel there was a definite falling away in quality from earlier volumes of essays such as 'Arguably' - but maybe that is inevitable with anyone writing so much on current affairs. The events, personalities and scandals that appear important and au currant can disappear, or date, or be forgotten, very quickly. I think Hitchens is a journalist/writer who will be read, so understand a part of the zeitgeist of the late twentieth and very early twenty first centuries, but how important or lasting his work will really be is becoming more questionable. Instant opinion and argument are fun in journalism but to last a good essay needs more then clever phrasing, it needs solid thought. George Orwell's journalism is still read because he has something to say that lasts. Hitchens was clever and shocking - but lasting? I have my doubts.
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