Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts by Clive James Reviewed by Christopher Hitchens
The Atlantic Monthly
"I opened this book, which despite its subtitle is a series of mini-profiles promising a rich and varied salad of brief lives and long reputations, only to nearly slam it shut again when I read Clive James thanking an editor for rescuing him from a confusion between Louis Malle and Miloš Forman ? 'a conspicuous instance of the embarrassing phenomenon known to clinical psychologists as the Malle-Forman malformation.' How could anyone, embarking on such a project, be so arch and so ingratiating? Yet perhaps the joke, such as it is, was on me...." Read the entire Atlantic Monthly review.