Negative Positive
Title: Buy it if you're interested in modern English literature.
Review: In this book can be found various articles previously published by different magazines by the famous political comentator Christopher Hitchens. Here we see another side of "Hitch", that of the critic of modern English literature, ranging from the witty 19th century plays of Oscar Wilde (whom he admires), to the leaden prose of the neo-conservative Norman Podhoretz (whom he most certainly destests). Even if you don't always agree with him (I find his views on religion repugnent) you don't have any appreciation of the English language if you don't get SOMETHING out of this book. As a student of the history of ideas I was fascinated by his account of Isaiah Berlin, and there are similar riches here for anyone interested in anglophone writing from the late 19th century until the turn of the current millenium. This is a fascinating book by a great prose stylist.
Is the review positive or negative? 