Who is the man who would risk his neck for a brother man? Hitch!He's a complicated man and no one understands him but his mama. Chris Hitch!Hitch is a bad mother--Shut your mouth!All right, enough of that. This is an amazing book that I want everyone to read. To get an idea of how great it is -- finding out the identity of Deep Throat when it was still a closely guarded secret only merits a footnote in this massive memoir.I picked it up because it was recommended to me by a lot of people. Usuall...

I'm gong to be a dissenter here and say I found this book rather boring. I had to think a bit as to why. It was the plodding, factual style. Hitchens is at his best when he is crosses swords with someone in debate. This comes through in his other books. Of the people I've seen, I think he was the best debater of his generation.I grew up in a Republican, Roman Catholic household. I would not say we watched Willam Buckley's "Firing Line" religiously, but I saw enough of it. When I learned from his...

Overall a well written memoir. He talks about several topics. In my opinion, it's hard to hate this guy. Well he comes off as a know-it-all at times, but his life wasn't easy. It opens up with a introduction he wrote months before he died of cancer knowing he wouldn't celebrate his next birthday. Then it goes into his mother's suicide. At least he hit us with the heavy topics first. Then he talks about politics and religion and other matters. I'm not sure he would call himself a feminist, but he...

Hitchens was a curiosity. I sporadically followed his interviews and writing, admired his courage travelling to world hot spots and in the face of his own mortality, yet couldn't quite keep him pinned in any one category of intellectuals. Hitchens was an Anti: Anti-theist, Anti-fascist, Anti-totalitarian, Anti-Stalin, Anti-Zionist....I didn't follow him that closely, but the list goes on. I was curious as to whether I fundamentally agreed with him or not, given that many times I had agreed, and

Stupidity and cruelty in high places can sleep a little easier now that Christopher Hitchens has gone. He was not so much a writer as a presence. He raised contempt to the level of high art. I may not have agreed with a whole lot of what he said but it gladdened the heart that he said it at all, and inspired the mind in the way that he said it. Complex sentences seemed to appear fully formed in his brain as he spoke. It was almost frightening. In the end he showed us how the good atheist dies. T...

I must admit that I was totally unaware of Christopher Hitchens until I was directed to watch a YouTube video showing him being interviewed by British journalist Jeremy Paxman. The interview was conducted in 2010, about a year before Hitchens was to succumb to cancer of the oesophagus. In the interview, I was impressed by his rather dispassionate acceptance of his imminent demise and also the fact that he appeared to be just about the most articulate person I’d ever heard speak. It seemed to me

“I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.” ― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir “A poet's work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.” ― Salman RushdieThere are just a handful of people I've never met, but who I miss every day since their death*:1.

I first heard of Hitchens on the day of his death – in my defence I was still quite new to the UK and was just getting familiar with the intellectual life here (insert a self-mocking chuckle here). What I managed to gather from the news that day was that he was UK’s no. 1 atheist, so that immediately put him on my radar and when I bought a Kindle this was the first book I bought for it (it was also a Kindle Daily Deal). It was an updated edition which included a heart-felt introduction Hitchens

Description: #1 "New York Times" bestselling author and finalist for the National Book Award -- one of the most admired and controversial public intellectuals of our time -- shares his personal life story.Most who have observed Christopher Hitchens over the years would agree that he possesses a ferocious intellect and is unafraid to tackle the most contentious subjects. Now 60, English-born and American by adoption; all atheist and partly Jewish; bohemian (even listing "drinking" along with "dis...

If you enter the word “Hitchslap” in the search box on Youtube, you’ll see thumbnail after thumbnail with the picture of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, middle aged man who is delivering a “Hitchslap” to his opponents on and off stage. This is how I was introduced to Christopher Hitchens. Born in Portsmouth, son of a naval officer and his beautiful young wife, Hitchens studied at Cambridge and Oxford before becoming a journalist and fulltime contributor to various magazines. Charming, eloquent, wit...

Will there ever be a time when I review a book of Hitchens' as a horrible piece of literature, or even a mediocre one, or even at middle-class level? Never say never, but I publicly reserve my doubts. By this point in my journey through his writing, he frightens me. It should be impossible for one to be so cunning, so witty, so ironic, so inteligent, so cultured and so literate, all in the same aprox. 2 pound mammal brain that most of us share. But, alas, here comes this giant of public intelect...

In March 2010, Rabbi David Wolpe debated Hitchens on the topic of (what else?) religion and eventually sputtered, "Don't interrupt me! I didn't interrupt you."Hitchens smiled. "No, you weren't quick enough."If that sort of delicious irony makes you swoon, you'll likely adore Hitchens' memoir. If that sort of disrespectful self-regard makes you seethe, you're unlikely to enjoy less than one page of it. I find myself in the middle, possibly the one and only Person On Earth Who Feels Moderately Abo...

GODDAMNIT GOODREADS YOU ATE MY WONDERFUL, LOVING, WITTY REVIEW AND I AM ABSOLUTELY INFURIATED SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT i'm going to go drink the bathroom cleaner FUCK.good book, though. SHIT SHIT SHIT.

Some books you sort of enjoy, yes, but you also sort of yearn for the finish line. You're ready (before you should be) for a new horse. This was one of those books. In parts, 5 stars. In others, 2 stars. The writing is pure Hitchens. No nonsense rabbit punches and to the point. The kind of voice we miss and wish hung around for another 50, just to set a few windbags straight. But at times the material seemed dated. The writing about past political stuff like Reagan and Bush the First and the Con...