I like CH as a talking head and author. I guess everybody shouldn't write their autobiography. He is egotistical, childish and cruel. Could be edited and used as a preface for God is not great. I highly recommend his new 10 commandments - check You Tube. ( )

Overall a well written memoir. He talks about several topics. In my opinion, it's hard to hate this guy. Well he comes off as a know-it-all at times, but his life wasn't easy. It opens up with a introduction he wrote months before he died of cancer knowing he wouldn't celebrate his next birthday. Then it goes into his mother's suicide. At least he hit us with the heavy topics first. Then he talks about politics and religion and other matters. I'm not sure he would call himself a feminist, but he clearly cares deeply about his mother throughout the book. I really liked his parts supporting Sylvia Plath, although this is before finding out Ted Hughes has a lot to do with her issues for domestic violence. Maybe this book should have been dedicated to his mother.

I will say at time I think Hitchens talk too much. Not that it's a bad thing. He clearly read a lot more than the average person. He talks about some books, but doesn't explain them well to the reader. Almost expects you to know. I probably have this flaw too. At least he is aware that he goes off topic and that his readers might not be as well educated as him. Like I said before, he also goes of topic a few times to the point forgot what the chapter's focus was.

The political parts were sometimes over my head. I get that he doesn't like authority. I find it interesting he moved to the United States because he didn't care for England. He talks about how US seems more free than UK. At one point this turns into an American Dream story telling. Then later it seems like he likes politics, but can't seem to fit into any of them like religion.

He is atheist. That is one thing I got from all of this. He doesn't just critique Christianity, but points out flaws with Judaism, Muslim, and others. He respect them as people, but not faith. He's more of a Humanist than people want to admit maybe. He talks about Marx and Orwell a lot, but I notice his religion seems to mirror more Spinoza (the ashiest version of Spinoza that is) than anyone else. He talks about loving Spinoza, but doesn't mention Ethics. I'm sure he's read the book.

I wouldn't read this book unless you know who this guy is before hand though. My review doesn't cover half of the thing I would talk about more if I bothered to write and essay long review. I recommend watching his debates on YouTube first. ( )

LBB-4

This memoir is one of the rare books which are interesting and boring the same time. The life and worldview of Hitchens is nothing but very interesting but sometimes he`s going into such details of the contemporary English and American world that it can`t really be enjoyed without a detailed knowledge about them (and maybe even with them). In whole still a recommended read. ( )

Hitchens, Christopher. Hitch 22. Twelve, 2010.
The memoir is a frustrating literary form. If you tell the truth, readers are likely to say how boring and chaotic it is. If you mythologize yourself, readers will shake their heads at your egoism and mendacity. Memoirs are always incomplete and selective. Even the most laudatory reviews of Hitch 22 seem to agree that Christopher Hitchens’ life was a disorganized mess, as was his account of it. They lament that this last book he was able to write was not a full biography. In fact, it was not even a memoir but only a collection of essays that usually had something to do with his life.
So, what do we learn about him? He shows us that friendship was important to him, but lovers, wife, children, and brother get scarcely a mention. Politics were important to him, but he made almost every political ally angry with him at some point. The radical friends of his youth denounced his slide to the right, but liberals and conservatives never forgave him, or he them. Certain moments stand out because they bring to light not Hitchens but other people in his life. His father, whom he calls The Commander, he says had a good war but a bad peace. His mother emerges as a complex and tragic figure. She dyed her hair blonde and tried to fit in with the snobbish naval community. She was intent on equipping her children for an upwardly mobile life. She left her husband when Christopher was still at Oxford and died with her lover in a suicide pact. It was more than a decade later that Hitchens found out that she Jewish. His reaction is laced with irony: “my younger brother brought me the news that I was a Jew....On hearing the tidings, I was pleased to find that I was pleased.” A Jewish heritage did not make him religious. When he came under fire in Bosnia, he says that he discovered that it was not true that there are no atheists in a foxhole, because it never occurred to him to pray. He became friends with Palestinian scholar Edward Said, even though they often disagreed on America’s role in the Middle East. Contrarian to the end, Hitchens was an important public intellectual of the late 20th century. Hitch 22 tells us a little bit about why that was so. 4 stars. ( )