And Yet … : Essays

Christopher Hitchens

I  had looked forward to reading this. I had of course heard of Christopher Hitchens, a Trotskyist turned neoliberal and strong supporter of the Iraq war. He was born and educated in the UK but spent most of his adult life in the US. He was famed as an author, orator and contrarian. He was notoriously anti-God and even went to the trouble of writing a book attacking Mother Teresa, of all people. He died four years ago of cancer at the early age of 62. This was perhaps related to his notorious enjoyment of eating, smoking and drinking, of which he made no secret. And Yet … is a collection of essays and reviews written in his final decade.

There are character sketches ranging from Che Guevara, George Orwell and G.K. Chesterton to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; the wide scattering of subjects takes in his hatred of Christmas, his – not very sincere – attempts at self-improvement, the “war on terror” and American dentistry.