Hitch-22: A Memoir#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 "disputation" as "hobbies" in Who's Who), he has held to a consistent thread of principle whether opposing war in Vietnam or supporting intervention in Iraq. As a foreign correspondent in some of the world's nastiest places, a lecturer and teacher and an esteemed literary critic, Hitchens manifests a style that is at once ironic, witty, and tough-minded. A legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for literature, he has sometimes ridiculed those who claim that the personal is political, though he has often seemed to illustrate that very idea. Readers will find that his own many opposites attract, as do his many sketches of friendship and ex-friendship, from Martin Amis to Noam Chomsky. Condemned to be able to see both sides of any argument, Christopher Hitchens has contradictions that contain their own multitudes. |
Contents
Preface | 3 |
The Commander | 32 |
Fragments from an Education | 47 |
Cambridge | 63 |
Revolution in the Revolution | 83 |
Havana versus Prague | 110 |
The Fenton Factor | 127 |
Martin | 154 |
Changing Places | 239 |
Salman | 261 |
Mesopotamia from Both Sides | 281 |
Something of Myself | 330 |
Thinking Thrice about the Jewish | 353 |
Edward Said in Light and Shade and Saul | 385 |
Decline Mutation or Metamorphosis? | 402 |
Acknowledgments | 423 |
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