Christopher Hitchens: No Thanks

By Mad Dog
Published: May 16, 2010

A publishing imprint I admire releases just one book a month — a sane strategy in a wobbly business. The June book: a memoir by Brit critic and man about town, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22. I suspect the reviews by American writers will be good to glowing — Hitchens is nothing if not witty. Alas, I have always had a visceral dislike for this guy and his smarter-than-you-are, snottier-than-you’ll-ever-dare-to-be style, so I won’t be reading or reviewing it. But I thought an English critic might have a useful take on the book, so here’s Lynn Barber. Punch line: “Hitch admits right at the end that Hitch-22 is ‘a highly selective narrative’. It is indeed — and it is the stuff he leaves out that worries me.”