Arguably

by Christopher Hitchens

Overview

"All first-rate criticism first defines what we are confronting," the late, great jazz critic Whitney Balliett once wrote. By that measure, the essays of Christopher Hitchens are in the first tier. For nearly four decades, Hitchens has been telling us, in pitch-perfect prose, what we confront when we grapple with first principles-the principles of reason and tolerance and skepticism that define and inform the foundations of our civilization-principles that, to endure, must be defended anew by every generation.

"A short list of the greatest living conversationalists in English," said The Economist, "would probably have to include Christopher Hitchens, Sir Patrick Leigh-Fermor, and Sir Tom Stoppard. Great brilliance, fantastic powers of recall, and quick wit are clearly valuable in sustaining conversation at these cosmic levels. Charm may be helpful, too." Hitchens-who staunchly declines all offers of knighthood-hereby invites you to take a seat at a democratic conversation, to be engaged, and to be reasoned with. His knowledge is formidable, an encyclopedic treasure, and yet one has the feeling, reading him, of hearing a person thinking out loud, following the inexorable logic of his thought, wherever it might lead, unafraid to expose fraudulence, denounce injustice, and excoriate hypocrisy. Legions of readers, admirers and detractors alike, have learned to read Hitchens with something approaching awe at his felicity of language, the oxygen in every sentence, the enviable wit and his readiness, even eagerness, to fight a foe or mount the ramparts.

Here, he supplies fresh perceptions of such figures as varied as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Rebecca West, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, and Philip Larkin are matched in brilliance by his pungent discussions and intrepid observations, gathered from a lifetime of traveling and reporting from such destinations as Iran, China, and Pakistan.

Hitchens's directness, elegance, lightly carried erudition, critical and psychological insight, humor, and sympathy-applied as they are here to a dazzling variety of subjects-all set a standard for the essayist that has rarely been matched in our time. What emerges from this indispensable volume is an intellectual self-portrait of a writer with an exemplary steadiness of purpose and a love affair with the delights and seductions of the English language, a man anchored in a profound and humane vision of the human longing for reason and justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455506781
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	09/01/2011
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	287,986
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Christopher Hitchens was a contributing editor to Vanity Fair,Slate, and the Atlantic, and the author of numerous books, including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and George Orwell. He also wrote the international bestsellers god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Hitch-22: A Memoir, and Arguably. He died in December 2011.

Table of Contents

Introduction xv

All American

Gods of Our Fathers: The United States of Enlightenment 3

The Private Jefferson 8

Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates 12

Benjamin Franklin: Free and Easy 21

John Brown: The Man Who Ended Slavery 28

Abraham Lincoln: Misery's Child 34

Mark Twain: American Radical 40

Upton Sinclair: A Capitalist Primer 47

JFK: In Sickness and by Stealth 54

Saul Bellow: The Great Assimilator 62

Vladimir Nabokov: Hurricane Lolita 70

John Updike, Part One: No Way 78

John Updike, Part Two: Mr. Geniality 85

Vidal Loco 89

America the Banana Republic 94

An Anglosphere Future 99

Political Animals 108

Old Enough to Die 117

In Defense of Foxhole Atheists 124

In Search of the Washington Novel 131

Eclectic Affinities

Isaac Newton: Flaws of Gravity 139

The Men Who Made England: Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall 146

Edmund Burke: Reactionary Prophet 152

Samuel Johnson: Demons and Dictionaries 165

Gustave Flaubert: I'm with Stupide 171

The Dark Side of Dickens 175

Marx's Journalism: The Grub Street Years 180

Rebecca West: Things Worth Fighting For 191

Ezra Pound: A Revolutionary Simpleton 222

On Animal Farm 228

Jessica Mitford's Poison Pen 237

W. Somerset Maugham: Poor Old Willie 242

Evelyn Waugh: The Permanent Adolescent 250

P. G. Wodehouse: The Honorable Schoolboy 265

Anthony Powell: An Omnivorous Curiosity 276

John Buchan: Spy Thrillers Father 290

Graham Greene: I'll Be Damned 297

Death from a Salesman: Graham Greene's Bottled Ontology 308

Loving Philip Larkin 323

Stephen Spender: A Nice Bloody Fool 332

Edward Upward: The Captive Mind 340

C. L. R. James: Mid Off Not Right On 347

J. G. Ballard: The Catastrophist 353

Fraser's Flashman: Scoundrel Time 358

Fleet Street's Finest: From Waugh to Frayn 365

Saki: Where the Wild Things Are 375

Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived 380

Amusements, Annoyances, and Disappointments

Why Women Aren't Funny 389

Stieg Larsson: The Author Who Played with Fire 397

As American as Apple Pie 403

So Many Men's Rooms, So Little Time 411

The New Commandments 414

In Your Face 423

Wine Drinkers of the World, Unite 426

Charles, Prince of Piffle 429

Offshore Accounts

Afghanistan's Dangerous Bet 435

First, Silence the Whistle-Blower 445

Believe Me, It's Torture 448

Iran's Waiting Game 455

Long Live Democratic Seismology 467

Benazir Bhutto: Daughter of Destiny 471

From Abbottabad to Worse 474

The Perils of Partition 480

Algeria: A French Quarrel 493

The Case of Orientalism 498

Edward Said: Where the Twain Should Have Met 504

The Swastika and the Cedar 513

Holiday in Iraq 519

Tunisia: At the Desert's Edge 526

What Happened to the Suicide Bombers or Jerusalem? 532

Childhood's End: An African Nightmare 535

The Vietnam Syndrome 541

Once Upon a Time in Germany 548

Worse Than Nineteen Eighty-four 553

North Korea: A Nation of Racist Dwarves 556

The Eighteenth Brumaire of the Castro Dynasty 559

Hugo Boss 563

Is the Euro Doomed? 566

Overstating Jewish Power 569

The Case for Humanitarian Intervention 573

Legacies of Totalitarianism

Victor Serge: Pictures from an Inquisition 585

Andre Malraux: One Man's Fate 595

Arthur Koestler: The Zealot 602

Isabel Allende: Chile Redux 607

The Persian Version 617

Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight 625

Imagining Hitler 640

Victor Klemperer: Survivor 652

A War Worth Fighting 661

Just Give Peace a Chance? 669

W G. Sebald: Requiem for Germany 673

Words' Worth

When the King Saved God 687

Let Them Eat Pork Rinds 697

Stand Up for Denmark! 704

Eschew the Taboo 709

She's No Fundamentalist 712

Burned Out 716

Easter Charade 719

Don't Mince Words 722

History and Mystery 726

Words Matter 730

This Was Not Looting 733

This Other L-Word 736

The You Decade 739

Suck It Up 742

A Very, Very Dirty Word 745

Prisoner of Shelves 748

Acknowledgments 751

Index 753

Editorial Reviews

His range is extraordinary, both in breadth and in altitude…I…find Hitchens one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining writers we have, even when—perhaps especially when—he provokes. And while he clearly wants to win you over, you always sense that he is playing in part to the jury of history, which is why so much of what he might, in a rare self-deprecating moment, refer to as hackwork stands up so well to ­anthologizing.
—The New York Times Book Review

Bill Keller

"Anyone who occasionally opens one of our more serious periodicals has learned that the byline of Christopher Hitchens is an opportunity to be delighted or maddened-possibly both-but in any case not to be missed....His range is extraordinary, both in breadth and altitude. He is as self-confident on the politics of Lebanon as on the ontology of the Harry Potter books....I still find Hitchens one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining we have, even when-perhaps especially when-he provokes."—New York Times

"The essays in ARGUABLY remind us of other dimensions to this singular writer and thinker that are sometimes overshadowed by the range of his political commentary. Though there are plenty of essays on politics to be found here, the book also treats us to other arrows in Hitchens' proverbial quiver, including his bracing, exhilarating approach to important literary figures...Its value is clear and needs no justification. And since his diagnosis of esophageal cancer last year, opportunities to hear him, understandably, have been fewer. Which is another thing ARGUABLY inadvertently addresses - for in reading this collection of his thoughts, immersing yourself in the particular turns of phrase and associations of Hitchens' wit, you suddenly realize something else: You're hearing his voice again."—Los Angeles Times

"Christopher Hitchens's selected essays are ARGUABLY (Twelve) his finest to date."—Vanity Fair

"One reads him [Hitchens] despite his reputation as someone who wants to drink, argue, and tear the ornaments off the tree, because he is, first and last, a writer, an always exciting, often exacting, furious polemicist. This fact, the most salient thing about him, often gets neglected in the public jousting. ARGUABLY Hitchens's new collection, forcefully proves this point. Consisting of three kinds of writing - literary journalism, political commentary, and cultural complaint - ARGUABLY offers a panoramic if somewhat jaundiced view of the last decade or so of cultural and political history."—The Boston Globe

"Opinions are to Christopher Hitchens what oil is to Saudi Arabia. This collection, featuring his liveliest, funniest and most infamous essays....There is a time for the balanced, even-handed and sober approach - but why bother with any of that when you could be reading someone as provocative and impish as Hitchens?"—The New York Post

From the Publisher

"Reading Hitch-22, his fascinating memoir of a career in combat journalism (both literal and figurative), one gets a sense that those looking for that tragic moment when a reliable man of the left became a fellow traveler of the right are asking the wrong question. On the big political issues that have long animated him-Middle Eastern politics, the dangers of religious messianism-his views have been surprisingly constant."

Michael C. Moynihan - Reason Magazine

"Hitchens offers up surprising revelations about the methods behind his madness as one of the world's most beloved and often hated scribes . . . bold and brassy Hitchens characteristically treats himself as the subject he knows best."

The Philadelphia City Paper

"One of the most engaging, exciting books I've read in years . . . The writing is lovely - introduction aside, which threatens early onset pretentia - Hitchens' cold-eyed evaluation of his younger self feels honest. To be sure, "Hitch 22'' is often a chronicle of Hitchens' best efforts. He teaches us that "cheap booze is false economy'' and reveals a youth engaged in boarding school homosexuality. But thankfully, Hitchens' efforts, friends, and close calls are rendered wonderfully in this strange book. Ultimately, "Hitch 22'' is about cultivating and maintaining one's intellectual integrity. As Hitchens writes, "[I]t is always how people think that counts for much more than what they think.''. . . But memoir generates pleasure through voice and sensibility, not through comprehensiveness. Nobody ever said self-awareness must lead to self-revelation, and even if you don't like what Hitchens thinks, it's easy to admire how he thinks."

Michael Washbum - The Boston Globe

"With the possible exception of Tom Wolfe and Maureen Dowd's, Christopher Hitchens' marvelous byline is the most archly kinetic in current-day American letters. Every article, review and essay has the romantic whiff of a durable vintage. You might disagree with him. You might question his motives. But not for a second will you ever be bored . . . goes on to call the memoir cunning, illuminating . . . Being able to shape-change, shed skins, sit on the hillside overlooking suburbia like a coyote, Hitchens represents a dying breed of public intellectual whose voice matters precisely because it can't be easily pigeonholed or ignored."

Douglas Brinkley - The Los Angeles Times

Christopher Hitchens' memoir has the same nerve and frankness that first made me admire him . . . His perspective on becoming an American citizen is refreshing at a time when it's easy to become jaded about our role in the world.

Mark Rahner - The Seattle Times

Hitchens expresses ambivalence about the term "public intellectual" but, as "Hitch-22" demonstrates, it suits him. The disputatious bon vivant is alive on the page, behind the speaker's podium and in "unglamorous houses on off-peak cable TV."

The Sunday Oregonian

"At its heart, Hitch-22 is a celebration of literature and a denunciation of idleness. "Hitchens is inarguably a man of action: He pursues history as it happens . . . eloquent, enlightening, and entertaining."

Gregg LaGambina - The Onion's AV Club

"When the colorful, prolific journalist shares a tender memory, he quickly converts it into a larger observation about politics, always for him the most crucial sphere of moral and intellectual life."

The New York Times Book Review

"[Hitchens] indulges in both an endearing critical self-examination and an action-packed adventure story."

The New Haven Advocate

"a fascinating, absorbing book: the rare contemporary memoir that is the record of a life of true accomplishment and authentic adventure . . . Hitchens is bravely, or at least defiantly, candid about qualities his detractors might use to undermine or perhaps explain his love of war and his rabid hatred for religious people"

Lee Seigel - The New York Observer

"Whether he's dodging bullets in Sarajevo, dissing Bill Clinton, (with whom he says he shared a girlfriend at Oxford) or explaining his switch from leftist to Iraq war supporter, this foreign correspondent, pundit, and bon vivant makes for an enlightening companion. Give HITCH-22 an 11 out of 10 for smarts, then double it for entertainment value."

Kyle Smith - People Magazine

"If you find yourself in the midst of Christopher Hitchens's memoir and he hasn't said something to anger, inspire, or at least annoy you, wait a few pages. More the account of an intellectual and political odyssey than a conventional autobiography, HITCH-22 chronicles the critic-journalist-activist's often storm-tossed journey across the ideological spectrum. What makes it a most rewarding trip is that he's a traveling companion with a vigorous mind and a gift for sparkling prose."

www.bookreporter.com

"Hitch-22 is among the loveliest paeans to the dearness of one's friends . . . I've ever read. The business and pleasure sides of Mr. Hitchens's personality can make him seem, whether you agree with him or not, among the most purely alive people on the planet."

Dwight Garner - The New York Times

"[An] extraordinary memoir by a truly astonishing figure of our literary age . . . This is among the most awaited books of the season, and while it confounds, misleads, exasperates and, on occasion, even bores, it also entertains to an almost shocking degree and illuminates almost as much. I laughed out loud - raucously and continuously - reading this book."

Jeff Simon - Buffalo News

" ... a complex portrait of a public intellectual."

Alexandra Alter - The Wall Street Journal

"... a fat and juicy memoir of a fat and juicy life."

Diana McLellan - The Washington Post

"After reading Hitch-22, the only thing you can be sure of is that this flawed knight will not breathe contentedly unless he has a dragon to slay."

Ariel Gonzales - The Miami Herald

"[D]electable, sassy fun . . . this book is intelligent and humane . . . Hitch-22 reminded me why I love the author of The Missionary Position, his fervent slapping of Mother Teresa, and his book about the war crimes of Henry Kissinger. Hitchens takes no prisoners, not even himself."

Mark Oppenheimer - The New Haven Review

"Few writers can match his cerebral pyrotechnics. Fewer still can emulate his punch as an intellectual character assassin. It is hard not to admire the sheer virtuosity of his prose ... With Hitchens one simply goes along for the ride. The destination hardly matters."

Ed Luce - The Financial Times

"[H]e has so many great quotes and quotables . . . that one cannot read his latest masterpiece for having to stop, find a pencil and page stickers in order to underline and signify his many remarks, each greater than the other."

Liz Smith - wowOwow.com

"Hitch is as Hitch does, and he's not apologizing to anyone."

Drew Toal - Time Out New York

"The most erudite and astute political and social commentator of this era has written a memoir that not only give the reader a view of the man behind the words but also a perceptive look at society over the past decades. Hitchens fascinates with the life he has lived and observed and, as always, relates his story with precision and consideration."

Bill Cusamano - Nicola's Books

"As contemptuous, digressive, righteous, and riotously funny as the rest of the author's incessant output, this memoir is an effective coming-of-age story, regardless of what one may think of the resulting adult . . . Hitchens paints a credible and even affecting self-portrait."

The New Yorker

"Opinions are to Christopher Hitchens what oil is to Saudi Arabia. This collection, featuring his liveliest, funniest and most infamous essays....There is a time for the balanced, even-handed and sober approach - but why bother with any of that when you could be reading someone as provocative and impish as Hitchens?"

The New York Post

"Christopher Hitchens's selected essays are Arguably (Twelve) his finest to date."

Vanity Fair

"The essays in 'Arguably' remind us of other dimensions to this singular writer and thinker that are sometimes overshadowed by the range of his political commentary. Though there are plenty of essays on politics to be found here, the book also treats us to other arrows in Hitchens' proverbial quiver, including his bracing, exhilarating approach to important literary figures...Its value is clear and needs no justification. And since his diagnosis of esophageal cancer last year, opportunities to hear him, understandably, have been fewer. Which is another thing 'Arguably' inadvertently addresses - for in reading this collection of his thoughts, immersing yourself in the particular turns of phrase and associations of Hitchens' wit, you suddenly realize something else: You're hearing his voice again."

Nick Owchar

Reading Hitch-22, his fascinating memoir of a career in combat journalism (both literal and figurative), one gets a sense that those looking for that tragic moment when a reliable man of the left became a fellow traveler of the right are asking the wrong question. On the big political issues that have long animated him-Middle Eastern politics, the dangers of religious messianism-his views have been surprisingly constant.
— Reason Magazine

Michael C. Moynihan

One of the most engaging, exciting books I've read in years . . . The writing is lovely - introduction aside, which threatens early onset pretentia - Hitchens' cold-eyed evaluation of his younger self feels honest. To be sure, "Hitch 22" is often a chronicle of Hitchens' best efforts. He teaches us that cheap booze is false economy'' and reveals a youth engaged in boarding school homosexuality. But thankfully, Hitchens' efforts, friends, and close calls are rendered wonderfully in this strange book. Ultimately, "Hitch 22" is about cultivating and maintaining one's intellectual integrity. As Hitchens writes, [I]t is always how people think that counts for much more than what they think.''. . . But memoir generates pleasure through voice and sensibility, not through comprehensiveness. Nobody ever said self-awareness must lead to self-revelation, and even if you don't like what Hitchens thinks, it's easy to admire how he thinks.
— The Boston Globe

Michael Washbum

With the possible exception of Tom Wolfe and Maureen Dowd's, Christopher Hitchens' marvelous byline is the most archly kinetic in current-day American letters. Every article, review and essay has the romantic whiff of a durable vintage. You might disagree with him. You might question his motives. But not for a second will you ever be bored . . . goes on to call the memoir cunning, illuminating . . . Being able to shape-change, shed skins, sit on the hillside overlooking suburbia like a coyote, Hitchens represents a dying breed of public intellectual whose voice matters precisely because it can't be easily pigeonholed or ignored.
— The Los Angeles Times

Douglas Brinkley

Christopher Hitchens' memoir has the same nerve and frankness that first made me admire him . . . His perspective on becoming an American citizen is refreshing at a time when it's easy to become jaded about our role in the world.
— The Seattle Times

Mark Rahner

At its heart, Hitch-22 is a celebration of literature and a denunciation of idleness. Hitchens is inarguably a man of action: He pursues history as it happens . . . eloquent, enlightening, and entertaining.
— The Onion's AV Club

Gregg LaGambina

a fascinating, absorbing book: the rare contemporary memoir that is the record of a life of true accomplishment and authentic adventure . . . Hitchens is bravely, or at least defiantly, candid about qualities his detractors might use to undermine or perhaps explain his love of war and his rabid hatred for religious people
— The New York Observer

Lee Seigel

Whether he's dodging bullets in Sarajevo, dissing Bill Clinton, (with whom he says he shared a girlfriend at Oxford) or explaining his switch from leftist to Iraq war supporter, this foreign correspondent, pundit, and bon vivant makes for an enlightening companion. Give HITCH-22 an 11 out of 10 for smarts, then double it for entertainment value.
— People Magazine

Kyle Smith

Hitch-22 is among the loveliest paeans to the dearness of one's friends . . . I've ever read. The business and pleasure sides of Mr. Hitchens's personality can make him seem, whether you agree with him or not, among the most purely alive people on the planet.
— The New York Times

Dwight Garner

[An] extraordinary memoir by a truly astonishing figure of our literary age . . . This is among the most awaited books of the season, and while it confounds, misleads, exasperates and, on occasion, even bores, it also entertains to an almost shocking degree and illuminates almost as much. I laughed out loud - raucously and continuously - reading this book.
— Buffalo News

Jeff Simon

... a complex portrait of a public intellectual.
— The Wall Street Journal

Alexandra Alter

... a fat and juicy memoir of a fat and juicy life.
— The Washington Post

Diana McLellan

After reading Hitch-22, the only thing you can be sure of is that this flawed knight will not breathe contentedly unless he has a dragon to slay.
— The Miami Herald

Ariel Gonzales

[D]electable, sassy fun . . . this book is intelligent and humane . . . Hitch-22 reminded me why I love the author of The Missionary Position, his fervent slapping of Mother Teresa, and his book about the war crimes of Henry Kissinger. Hitchens takes no prisoners, not even himself.
— The New Haven Review

Mark Oppenheimer

Few writers can match his cerebral pyrotechnics. Fewer still can emulate his punch as an intellectual character assassin. It is hard not to admire the sheer virtuosity of his prose ... With Hitchens one simply goes along for the ride. The destination hardly matters.
— The Financial Times

Ed Luce

[H]e has so many great quotes and quotables . . . that one cannot read his latest masterpiece for having to stop, find a pencil and page stickers in order to underline and signify his many remarks, each greater than the other.
— wowOwow.com

Liz Smith

Hitch is as Hitch does, and he's not apologizing to anyone.
— Time Out New York

Drew Toal

The most erudite and astute political and social commentator of this era has written a memoir that not only give the reader a view of the man behind the words but also a perceptive look at society over the past decades. Hitchens fascinates with the life he has lived and observed and, as always, relates his story with precision and consideration.
— Nicola's Books

Bill Cusamano

The more than 100 previously published commentaries and book reviews—1999 to the present—by this notable columnist, critic, and best-selling author (God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything) are serious, humorous, and, above all, thought-provoking. Topics range from the political situation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Tunisia to literary criticism of the works of John Updike, J.K. Rowling, and Stieg Larsson. The essay "Why Women Aren't Funny" contemplates why some women, who have the whole world of men at their feet, put childbirth higher and wit and intelligence lower on their scale of womanhood's enduring qualities. This leads to an essay on diaper-changing stations in men's restrooms. Recommended for shrewd readers and writers who enjoy keeping up with today's lively intellectual arguments, to which Hitchens has contributed so much. [See Prepub Alert, 3/14/11.]—Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL

Library Journal

Fans of clear, concise criticism and writing with a perfectly presented point of view will thoroughly enjoy this collection from acclaimed essayist Christopher Hitchens. Narrator Simon Prebble delivers each line of this remarkable work with the precision of a diamond cutter. Prebble’s pacing and authoritative tone mirror Hitchens’s intrepid observations, and while one may not agree with every argument presented, one is guaranteed hours of extraordinary writing and wit in the face of opposing opinions from one of the great minds of the last forty years. Sadly, Hitchens faces his greatest battle after a recent cancer diagnosis, and he acknowledges his possible premature demise. He’s met this latest challenge with the same hardheaded determination he displays in his essays, making ARGUABLY even more timely and urgent. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2011 - AudioFile