stolencapybara's review against another edition
4.0
What a thing to read. What a wonderful to spend hours loudly arguing with, learning from, being entertained by, being surprised by. Read it. It's like a great argument with a friend; a very well-read, fearless friend.
hullabaloo87's review against another edition
4.0
Christopher puts the weight of the world on his shoulders. He has true empathy for the people he engage with for better and for worse. Ranging from History, Literature to current affairs he delves deep into each topic and treats his readers as intelligent as himself and conveys his messages with seriousness, charm and humor.
His writings on culture and war, for a lack of a better term, shows us that you can be an Atheist and have a deep rooted understanding of right from wrong without celestial dictatorship and sadly seems to be unable to shake of the burden of the worlds problems. From the plights of the Afghans, to the civil war torn countries of Africa, the massacred Kurds of northern Iraq, the slaves of North Korea and it's concentration camps and many more, his writing truly conveys a man who willingly looks into the abyss and scorns it as only a Brit can when it dares to looks back.
Christopher Eric Hitchens, 1949 to 2011, a friend I never met but feel as though would always have my back, sincerely your Comrade and Friend.
His writings on culture and war, for a lack of a better term, shows us that you can be an Atheist and have a deep rooted understanding of right from wrong without celestial dictatorship and sadly seems to be unable to shake of the burden of the worlds problems. From the plights of the Afghans, to the civil war torn countries of Africa, the massacred Kurds of northern Iraq, the slaves of North Korea and it's concentration camps and many more, his writing truly conveys a man who willingly looks into the abyss and scorns it as only a Brit can when it dares to looks back.
Christopher Eric Hitchens, 1949 to 2011, a friend I never met but feel as though would always have my back, sincerely your Comrade and Friend.
mark_lm's review against another edition
5.0
One can't agree with every position that Hitchens takes in these 107 essays published the year that he died, but it is almost always a pleasure to read him, and you are likely to learn some new words, quotes, and history from his massive erudition.
nikshelby's review against another edition
5.0
"Why should we care what the Founding Fathers believed, or did not believe, about religion? They were to such great trouble to insulate faith from politics, and took such care to keep their own convictions private, that it would scarcely matter if it could now be proved that, say, George Washington was a secret Baptist. The ancestor of the American Revolution was the English Revolution of the 1640s, whose leaders and spokemen were certainly Protestant fundamentalists, but that did not bind the Framers and cannot be said to bind us, either."
caroparr's review against another edition
3.0
I dipped in and out of this enormous compendium of essays, reviews and political rants. I most enjoyed his assessments of Philip Larkin(ick), Dickens, Orwell and other writers.
jobinsonlis's review against another edition
3.0
Christopher Hitchens was a very gifted essayist and was extremely knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics, such as literature, history, and, yes, of course, religion. However this last collection of essays from him was at times an almost unbearable slog to get through. The high number of essays grouped together by content meant that I had to read several that seemed almost identical to one another and after a while my eyes just started to glaze over in an attempt to get me to go do something else more productive. I didn't really dislike any of the essays except for one bizarre piece rehashing why women aren't as funny as men (an argument I thought had been put to bed when everybody in the world realized that they personally knew lots of funny women so this couldn't possibly be true). However none of the essays really stuck out for me. For a gifted and controversial figure like Hitchens this seems almost worse than just not liking them. I'm happy that I read this for the book recommendations I picked up but I'm more happy that I'm finally done with this doorstopper.
beatsbybeard's review
4.0
Any attempt at illustrating the breadth and depth of Hitchens's intellect is an exercise in futility. This book of over 100 essays isn't even a complete collection; it samples his output from only the last fifteen-or-so years of his life, right up to his death in December 2011. The breathtaking scope and volume of that output is – in profound understatement – impressive. Topics range from historical figures, global politics, and totalitarianism to "Why Women Aren't Funny" and an analytical history of blowjobs. Clocking in at almost 800 pages, this is not a light read, but an invigorating one, and a fitting legacy for an author who, even posthumously, is in equal parts incensing and inspiring.
raven_acres's review against another edition
2.0
Gah! So glad this was a HalfPrice Books find. Just didn't do it for me and ended up flipping through.