"Do justice, and let the skies fall." Christopher Hitchens borrows from Roman antiquity this touchstone for a career of confrontation, argument, and troublemaking. Part of the Art of Mentoring series, Letters to a Young Contrarian is a trim volume of about two dozen letters to an imaginary student of controversy. The letters are wonderfully engaging--Hitchens is an exceptional prose stylist--and from the outset they strike a self-reflective note. What Hitchens lionizes and illuminates in this book is not any particular disagreement, but a way of being perpetually at odds with the mainstream. "Humanity is very much in debt to such people," he argues.

Hitchens's style is incendiary and sometimes flamboyant. He relishes the role of provocateur and fancies himself a gadfly to the drowsy American republic. One of his main strengths is his erudition, allowing him to range over vast landscapes of the humanities and politics in a single breath. But he is also sometimes glib and self-satisfied, and his penchant for referencing everything in sight can be distracting. Nonetheless, his arguments are forceful and morally important--and if the reader feels otherwise, there are few more fitting compliments to a professional dissident than dissent. --Eric de Place


From Publishers Weekly
Hitchens, a columnist for the Nation and Vanity Fair, and author, most recently, of The Trial of Henry Kissinger, has made a career of disagreement and dissent, of being the thorn in search of a side. "Only an open conflict of ideas and principles can produce any clarity," he observes. Hitchens's views, also part of the Art of Mentoring series (see Dershowitz, above), unfold in the form of an ongoing correspondence with an imaginary mentee whom he advises on modes of thought, argument and self-determination, on how to "live at an angle to the safety and mediocrity of consensus." The threats to free will are many, some predictable: establishment powers, the media, religious edicts, the manipulation of language, polls, labels, people with answers. Less obvious corrosives: the Dalai Lama, harmony, the New York Times claim to publish "all the news that's fit to print" ("conceited" and "censorious"). Indeed, the supply of enemies to rail against seems endless. Over a short span, Hitchens sounds off on a variety of topics irony, radicalism, anarchy, socialism, solitude, faith and humor, to name a few propelling readers through both time and space, from the Bible to Bosnia. At times, the argumentative positions seem offered up for their own sake which the author argues is justified and may inadvertently raise the question of how far we can define ourselves by what we are not. But this mini-manifesto, despite the somewhat mountainous terrain, should provide readers interested in current events and anti-establishment philosophy with a clearer view into one of today's more restless and provocative minds. (Oct.) Forecast: Basic figures there are as many budding contrarians out there as there are budding lawyers. The house is launching the new Art of Mentoring series with a 75,000-copy first printing of both books. With good media coverage (both authors will tour), Dershowitz's name and Hitchens's prickly reputation, both books should do well.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Perhaps best known for his indictment of ex-President Clinton in No One Left To Lie To, Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and the Nation, is usually thought of as an irritable, irreverent, sarcastic, witty, and intelligent champion of the Left with a penchant for transcending the party line. In this sense, his latest offering is surprising, not so much because of the content his sympathies are still decidedly leftist, even though he is critical of the Left's past failures but in tone and style. Debuting a book series modeled upon Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, he offers advice and encouragement to any young person who feels compelled to lead a life of nonconformity and dissent. Instead of offering trenchant political criticism, he contemplates the implications of not blindly joining the herd, methods of argument and persuasion, and the need for disagreement in intellectual development. He is occasionally dismissive of ideologies that differ from his own (mainly religious), and he is unabashedly partisan an emphasis on such leftist ideals as universal equality and respect for human rights pervades the text. But, overall, his advice is thankfully nonpartisan, and his passionate call to embrace dialectic thinking and contentious debate is convincing and, well, correct. For undergraduate and larger public libraries. Heath Madom, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
It's difficult to think of a political writer who fits the description "contrarian" better than Hitchens; his advice to aspirants, patterned after Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet (a popular source--see also Alan Dershowitz's version on p.267) is instructive. To his credit, Hitchens recognizes he has no "lock" on wisdom and that he "can appear insufferable and annoying without intending to do so." His letters urge his young friend to read widely, and his suggestions include Zola, Freud, Marx, Orwell, Forster, Vaclav Havel, Martin Amis, F. M. Cornford's Microcosmographia Academica, and Joseph Heller's Catch-22, among others. Hitchens is anticonsensus, even antitheist, as his critical study of Mother Teresa made clear. He is, however, broadly educated and a graceful writer, which suggests that even readers who disagree with him on many subjects will enjoy this commentary on the demands of "oppositionism." Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

Like the Trotskyite he once was, Christopher Hitchens thrives on polemic combat with lifelong enemies and onetime friends. His Letters to a Young Contrarian stakes out entire fronts of "contrary positions" about revered figures and fellow mavericks. Vigorous; contentious; disturbing; entertaining.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In the book that he quite possibly was born to write, provocateur and bestselling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, angry young (wo)men and dissidents. Who better to speak to that person pitched at an angle of passionate disagreement against the lazy consensus than Hitchens, who has made a career of disagreeing in profound and entertaining ways?" This book explores the entire range of "contrary positions," invoking mentors such as Emile Zola, Rosa Parks and Vaclav Havel. What they have in common is a commitment to living and thinking, right now, in a society not as it is but as it might be. Hitchens bemoans the loss of the skills of dialectical thinking evident in contemporary society and the sacrifice of true irony, satire and other forms of critical style. He understands the importance of disagreement - to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress - to democracy itself.

SYNOPSIS

Bestselling author Christopher Hitchins inspires future generations of radicals, rebels, and angry young men and women in these essays on the importance of disagreement to personal integrity, informed discussion, and democracy itself. The work is part of a series, "The Art of Mentoring," based on Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. Hitchins is a popular columnist for Vanity Fair and The Nation. This work lacks a subject index.

Annotation © Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

Journalist Christopher Hitchens turns out to be the more modest mentor. His nineteen letters are as engaging as Dershowitz's and more provocative. Hitchens is eloquent and savagely witty, and his approach here is theoretical, less nuts-and-bolts than Dershowitz's. In an environment of political correctness and overly polite discourse, Hitchens' appeal is in his desire to challenge and shake up the system. The author reminds us that "human beings do not, in fact, desire to live in some Disneyland of the mind, where there is an end to striving and a general feeling of contentment and bliss." While most desire harmony and peace, Hitchens argues for the usefulness of strife and debate: "In life we make progress by conflict and in mental life by argument and disputation." For Hitchens, "a state of praise and gratitude and adoration" is analogous to a "world of hellish nullity and conformism." Hitchens is deeply skeptical of those who criticize the politics of division, "as if politics was not division by definition," he points out. Having established himself as our preeminent political bad boy for his scathing attacks on Mother Teresa, the Clintons and Henry Kissinger, Hitchens will surely offend some with his antitheism: "I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful," writes Hitchens, for whom religion "is, and always has been, a means of control." The author is most effective when challenging us to resist the merely familiar and popular. The contrarian, Hitchens asserts, must be bold and aggressive, must not let weak assertions andbeliefs get by. Moreover, he or she must be willing to tell people what they don't want to hear. Recall how Hitchens, in his book The Missionary Position, was highly critical of alliances that Mother Teresa, esteemed and sacred to many, had formed with politicians and businessmen. Equally valuable is Hitchens' advice about overcoming self-doubt. "I am consoled, when I suffer this very same apprehension, by the thought that the Pope and the Queen and the President all wake up every morning with a similar gnawing fear. Or that, if they do not, they deserve to be doubted and distrusted even more, if that were possible, than I doubt and distrust them now." Hitchens' articulate and perceptive arguments have enormous appeal, as does Dershowitz's keen scrutiny of the American legal system, and their books effectively hold the reader's attention. In an age shaped by pervasive opinion polling, both writers advise us to stand alone and passionately resist what others—guided by habit, good manners or conformity—too easily accept. Surely such a lesson is beneficial to us all. —James Schiff

Publishers Weekly

Hitchens, a columnist for the Nation and Vanity Fair, and author, most recently, of The Trial of Henry Kissinger, has made a career of disagreement and dissent, of being the thorn in search of a side. "Only an open conflict of ideas and principles can produce any clarity," he observes. Hitchens's views, also part of the Art of Mentoring series (see Dershowitz, above), unfold in the form of an ongoing correspondence with an imaginary mentee whom he advises on modes of thought, argument and self-determination, on how to "live at an angle to the safety and mediocrity of consensus." The threats to free will are many, some predictable: establishment powers, the media, religious edicts, the manipulation of language, polls, labels, people with answers. Less obvious corrosives: the Dalai Lama, harmony, the New York Times claim to publish "all the news that's fit to print" ("conceited" and "censorious"). Indeed, the supply of enemies to rail against seems endless. Over a short span, Hitchens sounds off on a variety of topics irony, radicalism, anarchy, socialism, solitude, faith and humor, to name a few propelling readers through both time and space, from the Bible to Bosnia. At times, the argumentative positions seem offered up for their own sake which the author argues is justified and may inadvertently raise the question of how far we can define ourselves by what we are not. But this mini-manifesto, despite the somewhat mountainous terrain, should provide readers interested in current events and anti-establishment philosophy with a clearer view into one of today's more restless and provocative minds. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Perhaps best known for his indictment of ex-President Clinton in No One Left To Lie To, Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and the Nation, is usually thought of as an irritable, irreverent, sarcastic, witty, and intelligent champion of the Left with a penchant for transcending the party line. In this sense, his latest offering is surprising, not so much because of the content his sympathies are still decidedly leftist, even though he is critical of the Left's past failures but in tone and style. Debuting a book series modeled upon Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, he offers advice and encouragement to any young person who feels compelled to lead a life of nonconformity and dissent. Instead of offering trenchant political criticism, he contemplates the implications of not blindly joining the herd, methods of argument and persuasion, and the need for disagreement in intellectual development. He is occasionally dismissive of ideologies that differ from his own (mainly religious), and he is unabashedly partisan an emphasis on such leftist ideals as universal equality and respect for human rights pervades the text. But, overall, his advice is thankfully nonpartisan, and his passionate call to embrace dialectic thinking and contentious debate is convincing and, well, correct. For undergraduate and larger public libraries. Heath Madom, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews