Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)

Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)
by Christopher Hitchens

Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $8.66
You Save: $6.29 (42%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.05 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Christopher Hitchens
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-13
ISBN: 0465030335
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Basic Books

Book Reviews of Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)

Book Review: Great Idea, Not So Great Execution
Summary: 3 Stars

I like Hitchens as a contrarian and I like what he has to say, generally. At the very least, it is always interesting to read and never tame or conventional. I enjoy hearing him speak very much: A great impromptu speaker on a wide range of subjects. The book starts out well, with normal, declarative sentences. The problem I have with Hitchens is that, at least in this book, and in spots in others, he positively bludgeons you with how superbly well-read he is and how you will never live up to his standard (pose? --probably not) of literary gourmet and gourmand and literary arch-critic and final arbiter of taste. If I didn't know him, I'd think he had a problem with his self esteem. Here's a representative sample:

"[after a long quote from Rilke] It may be my Englishness, but this strenuous Capitalisation of the Abstract, and this allied tendency to tautology, remind me instantly of the moment in Evelyn Waugh's novella *The Loved One* where an advice columnist is asked for help in combatting nail biting and asks his assistant: 'What did we tell last time?' 'Meditiation and the Beautiful.' 'Tell her to go on meditating.' Irony is not as easily religated as that. (Rilke then goes on to confide in us rather archly about the only two works from which he is never parted: 'the Bible and the books of the great Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen.' This piety somewhat spoils the recommendaiton of *Niels Lyhne*, Jacobsen's excellent novel, which was rightly admired by Freud and by Thomas Mann and which is a sort of Danish *Young Werther*.)" (Page 15 of the hardcover.)

Goodness! What in the heck does he mean by this paragraph, beyond "I know more books THAN YOU DO!" The parenthetic sentences at the bottom are just priceless snobbery.

If you enjoy being talked down to (or if you consider yourself such an expert) then you may enjoy this book. I really can't be bothered to slog through this stuff. He's looking down his nose at me from such an exaggerated angle that his eyes are disappearing.

I think a single, concise essay of his advice on how not to run with the herd could be distilled from the book. But it is laden with so much of what is shown above that I just lose interest.

Summary of Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)

In the book that he was born to write, provocateur and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, angry young (wo)men, and dissidents. Who better to speak to that person who finds him or herself in a contrarian position than Hitchens, who has made a career of disagreeing in profound and entertaining ways.This book explores the entire range of "contrary positions"-from noble dissident to gratuitous pain in the butt. In an age of overly polite debate bending over backward to reach a happy consensus within an increasingly centrist political dialogue, Hitchens pointedly pitches himself in contrast. He bemoans the loss of the skills of dialectical thinking evident in contemporary society. He understands the importance of disagreement-to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress-heck, to democracy itself. Epigrammatic, spunky, witty, in your face, timeless and timely, this book is everything you would expect from a mentoring contrarian.

"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

Letters & Correspondence Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Letters & Correspondence Books
The Letters of Robert Burns: Volume I: 1780-1789 ImageThe Letters of Robert Burns: Volume I: 1780-1789
by Robert Burns
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1986-01-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $285.00
Price in other shops: $295.00
The Mahler Family Letters ImageThe Mahler Family Letters
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2005-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.96
Price in other shops: $95.00
Revolutionary Sparks: Freedom of Expression in Modern America ImageRevolutionary Sparks: Freedom of Expression in Modern America
by Margaret A. Blanchard
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1992-05-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops: $108.00
Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde (Oxford Paperbacks) ImageSelected Letters of Oscar Wilde (Oxford Paperbacks)
by Oscar Wilde
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1979-04-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $49.00
Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde ImageSelected Letters of Oscar Wilde
by Oscar Wilde
Oxford Univ Pr (T); Published: 1979-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $85.28
Letters : 1925-1975 ImageLetters : 1925-1975
by Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2003-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops: $28.00
Letters to Father: Suor Maria Celeste to Galileo, 1623-1633 (Penguin Classics) ImageLetters to Father: Suor Maria Celeste to Galileo, 1623-1633 (Penguin Classics)
by Suor Maria Celeste
Penguin Classics; Published: 2002-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $14.00
A Life in Letters (Penguin Classics) ImageA Life in Letters (Penguin Classics)
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Penguin Classics; Published: 2007-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.90
Price in other shops: $17.00
Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957-1958 ImageDoor Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957-1958
by Jack Kerouac, Joyce Johnson
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.44
Price in other shops: $15.00
Your Father's Voice: Letters for Emmy About Life with Jeremy--and Without Him After 9/11 ImageYour Father's Voice: Letters for Emmy About Life with Jeremy--and Without Him After 9/ 11
by Lyz Glick, Dan Zegart
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2005-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.38
Price in other shops: $15.99
Similar Books and other products
The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice ImageThe Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
by Christopher Hitchens
Verso; Published: 1997-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $89.72
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) ImageThomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)
by Christopher Hitchens
Atlantic Monthly Press; Published: 2007-07-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.69
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism--The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens ImageThe Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism--The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens
Da Capo Press; Published: 2011-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.74
Price in other shops: $17.00
Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives) ImageThomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives)
by Christopher Hitchens
Harper Perennial; Published: 2009-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops: $13.99
Why Orwell Matters ImageWhy Orwell Matters
by Christopher Hitchens
Basic Books; Published: 2003-09-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.06
Price in other shops: $15.95
Love, Poverty, and War : Journeys and Essays ImageLove, Poverty, and War : Journeys and Essays
by Christopher Hitchens
Nation Books; Published: 2004-11-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops: $18.95
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever ImageThe Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
by Christopher Hitchens
Da Capo Press; Published: 2007-11-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.57
Price in other shops: $17.95
Hitch-22: A Memoir ImageHitch-22: A Memoir
by Christopher Hitchens
Twelve; Published: 2011-06-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops: $14.99
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens ImageArguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
by Christopher Hitchens
Twelve; Published: 2011-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.97
Price in other shops: $30.00
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything ImageGod Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
by Christopher Hitchens
Twelve; Published: 2009-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.02
Price in other shops: $14.99