A Colossal Wreck

Reviews / Votes

Whether journeying to Key West, Fla., Humboldt County, Calif., Ireland or Istanbul, Mr. Cockburn is a warrior/freethinker, armed with courage and gifted prose to cut down the hypocrisies of tyrants. He is a Marxist Mencken-a composite of comic-poet Andrei Condrescu, the erudite Christopher Hitchens and the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. * New York Times * Probably the most gifted polemicist writing in English today. * Times Literary Supplement * Alex struck American journalism like lightning. -- Michael Tomasky * Daily Beast * Always surprising, outrageous, brilliant and yet strangely compassionate. He weaves together the public and the private with a sustained comic ingenuity that is matchless. -- Edward Said He had the courage to take on anything and anyone, from the most powerful organisations in the world to his closest friends, and the energy and persistence to follow his own path wherever it took him. * Guardian * Alexander Cockburn set a high standard of crusading journalism for fifty years ... With his Wildean wit, love of elegant women, penchant for hunting and fondness for P.G. Wodehouse, Cockburn defied the stereotype of the disgruntled left-wing scribe. * Independent * Cockburn essentially pioneered the modern persona for which Christopher Hitchens became much better known: the fancily Oxford-educated leftie Brit litte?rateur/journalist who would say all the outrageous things his bland Yank counterparts lacked the wit, courage, erudition, or e?pater-spirit to utter on their own ... Cockburn was far more committed and purposeful in his outrageousness. -- James Fallows * Atlantic * Cockburn's stylish prose is full of erudition, ribald gossip, and pithy insight... [his] gleefully contrarian punditry makes for an entertaining read. * Publishers Weekly *