And Yet...

December 14, 2015
Even several years removed from Hitchens's death in 2011, the provocative, probing, and prolific writer remains one of this era's most mesmerizing and combative social commentators and public intellectuals, as this collection vividly reminds readers. Brimming with laconic wit, drollery, and unapologetic, fiercely held viewpoints, these reviews and articles mostly originate from the '00s and first appeared in publications such as Slate, Vanity Fair (where he was a contributing editor), the Atlantic, and the New York Review of Books. The period was a tumultuous one for Hitchens: the staunch liberal dismayed many of his leftist friends by supporting the Iraq war; a committed atheist, he published his controversial but bestselling book, God Is Not Great, in 2007; and he was diagnosed with his fatal illness in 2010. Yet not even this last blow could stifle his prodigious output of wide-ranging observational essays. This collection includes glorious Wall Street Journal rant against Christmas; his insightful exploration of what makes the American South so distinctive; an unsentimental, wonderfully wry series on "self-improvement" as undertaken by the notoriously hard-drinking heavy smoker; and other examples of his ever-incisive, sometimes controversial opinions on society, world affairs, politicians, and authors. They add up to a fitting addition to Hitchens's legacy.

July 1, 2015

Arguing against God; arguing for intervening in Iraq; blasting political biggies from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Tony Blair to Henry Kissinger; praising writers from Saul Bellow to Thomas Paine and friends like Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie--this and more is what these previously uncollected essays do. From the late, empyrean critic and author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling god Is Not Great.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2016

Hitchens is one of the world's best-known essayists, with his provocative observations on religion and politics appearing in print and online magazines such as Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, and Slate before his death in 2011. Many of these essays have been published in the more voluminous Arguably (2011), which takes up over 700 pages and covers such large political and literary figures as Abraham Lincoln, Edmund Burke, and Andre Malraux, with whole sections devoted to sweeping topics such as Orientalism and totalitarianism. Fans of Hitchens's prose will appreciate the pieces provided here on topics and personalities that are absent in the larger volume, which supplies only his more essential writings. This collection includes additional reviews of notable contemporary works, including historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.'s posthumously published Journals: 1952-2000 and a critical review of Barack Obama's books in the Atlantic published soon after the 2008 election. Other subjects of Hitchens's analysis include criticism of Colin Powell's foreign policy and harsh criticism of Hillary Clinton's experience in an essay from Slate unambiguously titled "The Case Against Hillary Clinton." VERDICT This book cannot necessarily be reduced to a simple appendage to Arguably, which is perhaps best for readers who are already familiar with Hitchens's main writings but want more. [See Prepub Alert, 6/29/15.]--Jeffrey J. Dickens, Southern Connecticut State Univ. Libs., New Haven

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2015
Hitherto uncollected journalistic pieces, much along the lines of Arguably (2011), in which the late, great, much-missed Hitchens (Mortality, 2012, etc.) takes stock of the world. Hitchens was famously a man of the left who, all the same, found reasons to support going to war in Iraq, a libertarian who nonetheless saw the uses of government, and an atheist who'd read the Bible more than most Sunday school teachers--and a contrarian through and through. "These things," as he remarks of another matter entirely, "are worth knowing." They are also things that introduce inconsistencies and contradictions into the conversation. Hitchens could be a fierce critic of the American theocracy that the majority seems to prefer and yet celebrate the splendid secular holiday that is Thanksgiving, despite its central feature: "that one forces down, at an odd hour of the afternoon, the sort of food that even the least discriminating diner in a restaurant would never order by choice." In the same vein, speaking of a different Turkey, one of the most thoughtful essays in this casual gathering takes on the widely admired novelist Orhan Pamuk for not being sufficiently stalwart in his defense of the secular Turkish state against the Islamists who would ban literature immediately on gaining power. There are a few old tropes here but with new twists: predictably, there's a piece on Hitchens' hero George Orwell but with a defense for his having named the names of presumed enemies of the state, an act worthy (or unworthy) of Winston Smith. Whip-smart, Hitchens is at his best when skewering the political class, though with the understanding that what we have now is likely to be a sight better than what's to come: "How low can it go? Much lower, just you wait and see." A parting shot? Just as with rock bands that seem to have done more farewell tours than pre-farewell performances, there's probably more in the vault--but in this case, that's a very good thing indeed.

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