Sharp and erudite, Hitchens discusses the real challenges faced by someone who decides to become a radical. The book's timing (early 2001) makes the book difficult to level with Hitchens' later decision to be one of the most vocal cheerleaders of the War on Terror and especially the Iraq War. I don't know how this book would look if it was released later, and I wish the library had a newer copy hopefully with some of Hitchens' justifications for his apparent reversal of position. Worth a read for all the misfits too smart to fit in.