Christopher Hitchens

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More About

• Christopher Hitchens
• Martin Amis
• Salman Rushdie
• Oxford
• Margaret Thatcher

Christopher Hitchens is a bombastic, self-aggrandizing name dropper. But you knew that already. He’s also perhaps the most irascible writer of the unorthodox left (he was in favor of the Iraq War). And, certainly, the most quotable. A regular on television and contributor to Vanity Fair, the expat Englishman became a U.S. citizen three years ago, and that process—along with his tart political views—are both featured in his new memoir, Hitch-22 (Twelve Books, $26.99). Though he counts Salman Rushdie and Martin Amis as close friend, Hitchens wasn’t born posh. He was a scholarship boy at Oxford, and he’s survived by his wits in journalism for four decades. Apart from his political views (“I consider myself a very conservative Marxist”), Hitchens’ personal revelations will also help sell the book. His mother, later a suicide, never told her kids she was Jewish. Hitchens, married twice, frankly acknowledges a couple of gay affairs. He and Amis visit a New York brothel together (but don’t sleep together). In the ’80s, he debates then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who orders him to bow. With a life like that, can a second volume—Hitch-23, perhaps—be far behind? Tonight, radio host Luke Burbank will interview Hitchens on stage. BRIAN MILLER
Tue., June 22, 7:30 p.m., 2010