In many ways, Hitchens comes across as the result of the
era in which he was raised. A naval officer father, a remote figure always
referred to as “The Commander”, even though he was not always that rank, and
a mother who separated from the family to live with another man, and
eventually was part of a double suicide. The loss of his mother, called
Yvonne by Hitchens, again showing the family gulf, obviously affected him as
a young man, and psychologists would have a field day with his analysis,
pointing out that his earlier sexual ambivalence was probably the result of
this upbringing.
The book covers the entire lifespan from his birth in
1949 through to today where he is now living with an esophageal cancer, and
with his own brand of atheism is certainly not in God’s waiting room (though
Hitchens would spell “God” in lower case “god”).
His early political leanings to the left are ones that
are shared by most young university intellectuals, reaching their outward
protests and sit-ins with out much depth to their beliefs. As one gets older
and more mature (“wiser” would be incorrect), these leanings change, and
Hitchens describes his vacillation through life, currently describing
himself as no longer a ‘socialist’ but still a Marxist as well as a
neo-conservative. He also managed to be given a spanking by Maggie Thatcher,
and sleep with two of her party members. All very confusing, but also all
very understandable when you regard the intellect of this man and his
deliberate, at times, stance to be provocative.
Hitchens writes of his travels and travails around the
world, and the many causes that he has espoused, including the unification
of Ireland and the condemnation of military torture.
He became a very public face with his support of the war
in Iraq, but as a young man had been against the involvement of the west in
the war in Vietnam, but now believed it was America’s duty to depose Saddam
Hussein, despite the cost. He also was one of the few journalists to deny
the Weapons of Mass Destruction hysteria.
At B. 530 from the Bookazine shelves, it is top money for
a wonderfully obtuse book, which will keep you interested from cover to
cover, though you have to do it in small bites, as otherwise the plethora of
names in the memoirs begins to read like a Yellow Pages entry under the
heading of Intelligentsia.
I did enjoy it, despite that, but it did take much longer
to digest than I would have imagined initially. It is also very
British-based (up till 1981 when he emigrates to the USA), going through the
better known universities of Oxford and Cambridge (both somewhat of an
anachronism these days, I feel) and then the peerage and its representation
in the political parties of the day.
