'' Love , Poverty , and War : Journeys and Essays '' is a collection of essays and reportage by the author , journalist , and literary critic Christopher Hitchens . The title of the book is explained in the introduction , which informs the reader that " an antique saying has it that a man 's life is incomplete unless or until he has tasted love , poverty , and war . " The " Love " section includes essays on some of Hitchens 's favourite literary figures : Evelyn Waugh , James Joyce , Leon Trotsky and Rudyard Kipling ; " Poverty " includes critiques of the likes of Mother Teresa , Michael Moore , Mel Gibson and David Irving ; while " War " is divided into the sections " Before September " and " After September " , the latter showing Hitchens ' reaction to the September 11 attacks . As Colm Tóibín observes in his review , " the book is overshadowed by that day and by Hitchens 's response to it . " It was , in Hitchens 's words , " a condensed day of love , poverty , and war , all right . " '' Love , Poverty , and War '' was praised in '' Kirkus Reviews '' as " a well-turned collection with scarcely a false note " , with the author 's " fierce and nuanced patriotism in the wake of 9/11 " singled out . In '' The Daily Telegraph '' , Robert Douglas-Fairhurst billed Hitchens as " the charging rhinoceros of English letters " and wrote that although " pieces generated by the heat and smoke of 9/11 jostle with slighter essays on Bob Dylan and the masturbatory excesses of '' Ulysses '' ... there are times when Hitchens writes so well that you would forgive him almost anything . " Douglas-Fairhurst also praised the author 's " willingness to say the unsayable "
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Love, Poverty, and War