Friday, June 25, 2010

Hitch22: A Memoir

Plain and simple, here is [in a nutshell] why I loved reading Hitch22.
….. are you ready? [drumroll….]
Because I love the author of the thing!
I think that Christopher Hitchens could talk about The History of Brick… and I would be on the edge of my seat, listening. So -- am I a biased reader of his life story?
His memoir?
Yes.
Yes, I am.
And I say all of the above not just for the sake of humor or flippancy -- I say it as a sort of... proviso.
This book was a gem to read. But I am a Hitchens' devotee. I like him. Therefore, I have a predisposition of wanting to know everything I can about him.
About how The Hitch became The Hitch.

This book opens the door, behind which stands one of the most relevant, critical thinkers of our time.
Is he blunt? Crude? Crass? The kind of guest you fear will tap his ashes on your new carpet?
Yes, to all of the above. Guilty as charged.
But rarely have I so delightedly read of someone so well-versed in literature, so burstingly filled with incidental knowledge. So searingly honest about his own shortcomings.
So appropriately charged with the glories of his triumphs.
An unabashed, clear-thinking, near-fearless polemicist.

This memoir shows the reader something other than:
Hopelessly
Incorrigible
Taunt-filled
Curmudgeonly
Hellraiser.

It reveals something more along the lines of:
Hilariously
Intelligent
Tuned-In
Concerned [Connected]
Hellraiser.

Perhaps my favorite quote from the book is this -- To announce that one has painfully learned to think for oneself might seem an unexciting conclusion and anyway, I have only my own word for it that I have in fact taught myself to do so. The ways in which the conclusion is arrived at may be interesting, though, just as it is always how people think that counts for much more than what they think.

Learn more about Hitchens --> HERE.
Nab a copy of Hitch22 --> HERE.

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