Today is Veteran's Day and the "New York Times Sunday Book Review" does not have a single book about Veterans. Disappointing and saddening to say the least. Richard Brookhiser does review Christopher Hitchens' latest book entitled "Thomas Paine's 'Rights of Man': a Biography".
Mr. Brookhiser moves adroitly through the introduction of the book and its background as part of a series giving little mention of Mr. Hitchens and his controversial persona. So far so good, however the pace is soon lost by a biography of Thomas Paine. The details of the review of Mr. Paine's life seem to merely take up space and offer little information that is relevant to the review of the book at hand. When the reviewer does get around to Mr. Hitchens work he merely parrots the device used by the author and quotes not the text he is reviewing but the texts anaylized by Mr. Hitchens. Finally Mr. Brookhiser attacks Mr. Hitchens' political beliefs manifest in Mr. Hitchens dedication of his book to the president of Iraq Jalal Talabani. And nowhere is there a valuable critique of the literature or even whether the author enjoyed the book. I did not enjoy this review in case you were wondering.

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