Critic Reviews
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Based on 8 reviews on
Reporter with @echolivecork. Retweets not an endorsement, opinions very much my own. DMs open. donal.okeeffe@theecho.ie. https://t.co/1F80c236A9…
What a limited and yet oddly focused little man Ron DeSantis is, with his dogged obsession calling to mind the late Christopher Hitchens' prediction of the inevitable public convenience-based Waterloo awaiting so many elected loudmouth homophobes. https://t.co/RqCouztDYJ
"A very good new collection...The best reason to read 'And Yet...' may be its inclusion of a three-part essay, 'On the Limits of Self-Improvement, ' that Mr. Hitchens wrote for Vanity Fair about trying to get himself in shape. It is as hilarious as it is wise, and I predict it will be published before long as its own pocket-size book... The moment when Mr. Hitchens undergoes the male version of a Brazilian bikini wax... has yet to be recognized, but surely will be, as among the funniest passages in this country's literature."
--Dwight Garner, New York Times
"Dazzling, vintage Hitch... essays in which he simply opens his eyes, describes what he sees and ends up hitting on more human truth than you're likely to find in a score of more properly scientific studies... 'And Yet...' really does give us Hitchens at his best."
--New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice
"'And Yet ...' gives us one more taste of this devilishly smart and cantankerous writer, with a set of essays on politics, literature and society that have never appeared in book form...the overwhelming feeling this collection leaves is of a voice extinguished just when it was needed most -- that of a matchless, uncompromising observer."
--Seattle Times
"Hitchens leaves a trail of brilliant, brawling and provocative quotes and ideas to consider, admire or deplore."
--USA Today (3.5/4 stars)
"This hefty collection of pieces... shows no falling-off from his previous collections. Hitchens was that rare critic who, like Irving Howe or Dwight MacDonald, wrote seriously and well about both politics and literature, combining strong intellectual beliefs with fine aesthetic taste and judgment...Everything Hitchens touches is treated in a style that's actively probing, often fiercely critical, but always infused with ironic wit."
--Boston Globe
"Whether his subject is Charles Dickens or Arthur Schlesinger, Ian Fleming or Mikhail Lermontov, Hitchens always manages to fit a dense dose of research and reference into an essay without overburdening it. Though the subjects in this collection are heterogeneous ... something does unify the pieces: the raging, querulous, eloquent voice of a restless, wide-ranging critic."
--Chicago Tribune