Book Review: "And Yet..." by Christopher Hitchens

It's mid-May and the heat in Britain continues. England is burning and my flat because of its age has this unfortunate habit of not cooling down. So when it is say 20 degrees celsius outside (68F for our USA friends) it is perhaps 30 degrees celsius (86F) in my apartment. So, since it has been up to 25 degrees celsius (77F) outside on some days, it has been up to (95F) in my apartment. You get the picture. Any heat outside has extra heat added to it when I'm in my apartment. But at least I can still escape into my books. So here it is, a review of And Yet by Christopher Hitchens.

I'm obviously not going to look at all of the essays within but I am going to look at a few which stood out to me, so here we go...

In the essay Orwell's List Hitchens looks at how George Orwell made the decision to provide a list of communist sympathisers to the British government. Obviously, Orwell's intentions are to protect the public from going through any kind of authoritarian regime on any side, but the stain of working with the British government at the time that he did was something that many found to be a bit awkward to explain. I liked Hitchen's explanation of the way in which Orwell was transparent about it and the fact that it made sense to him even though a good amount of people didn't really understand the move.

On Being American is one that made me laugh. As we know, Christopher Hitchens at one time, had decided to become an American citizen and live his life in the USA. He discusses how he had to adopt to a whole new world. I think this is important to remember because people often lump British and American culture together as 'Western Culture' and that then often includes everyone from Finland to Canada (which I am sure have different cultures). Britain and America are quite literally nothing alike. He discusses how he had to adjust to the openess of American society. He contrasts this openess with the rigidity of British society and often I find him to be really accurate in these contrasts. He also makes some wise cracks about how American he is for the fact that his children are all born and raised in America. It's pretty different to his usual essays on philosophy as it takes a more personal turn.

Another essay that I had read and enjoyed was titled Ian Fleming: Bottoms Up which discusses the very idea and philsophies of James Bond and what he represents in British Culture. Hitchens gives us a background in which Britain's imperial power is declining and so, there is a requirement for a hero who answers to this power that was declining. Hitchens also looks at the almost exaggerations of character that the villains often portrayed. Whether they were actually manifestations of the author's own fears and desires I don't think we will be able to prove without talking to him (and we can't), so that was interesting to find out though I did wonder about how much truth there was in it. It's definitely true that Bond often influenced the way in which British masculinity was perceived and the way in which international politics was understood. Anyways, an interesting essay with some important points - this has got to be one of the ones you mention when you yourself, reads and reviews the book.

The final essay I'd like to share was called The Importance of Being Orwell which is genuinely an appreciative piece of literature about Orwell's combat against totalitarianism and his want to uphold a democratic socialist state in which people have the freedoms and liberties to say what they want to say without fear of imprisonment or other kind of punishment. What we who read Orwell often notice when reading him is his proficiency with straight-forward language. Direct and declarative, Orwell's writings are often stripped down of much of the atmosphere and inference. Hitchens notes this as well, analysing Orwell's disdain for using euphemism. This is best seen in 1984 but is probably best explained in his book Politics and the English Language. I'm not going to lie, the way in which Hitchens looks at Orwell's language may not be a new one, but it is definitely not dull. Hitchens really does his best to make this as deep and political a subject as he can.

All in all, Hitchens proves himself to be a talented writer in practically any subject. There are many other examples I wanted to include but it would have definitely made this review far too long. I can honestly say that this has been one of the Hitchens essay anthologies I think all should read should they want to know about where Hitchens lies on the political scale.