It’s a sign of my intellectual laziness – and equally of my savability, I think – that I am so captivated by Hitch-22: A MEMOIR. Laziness, because Hitchens should have, by this time, been an intimate of mine both through his huge journalistic output and his equally broad and clear-eyed world view. Savability because, starting with this memoir, I shall retrace this authorial journey.
Read it.
For the language, if for nothing else. For the vast experiential and intellectual reference library that he is. For the humility (yes, I believe so) that is evident in the journey of his intellectual development. For the personal vignettes and intimate stories, shared and not gratuitously dangled.
For the education.
Because to read him with a dictionary and a map at hand is a challenge well rewarded.
Because, to borrow an image from these pages, his words are like a hammer smashing the bell jar.
http://www.amazon.com/Hitch-22-Memoir-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/0446540331