A Colossal Wreck

Praise

“It’s alive on every page, this thing; its feisty sentences wriggle … A Colossal Wreck will have a long life among those who care about the crackling deployment of the English language, partly because Mr. Cockburn had such a wide-ranging mind … His book is a stay against boredom.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times

“A Colossal Wreck provides ample evidence for Cockburn’s standing as one of the left’s most perceptive and entertaining commentators.” —The Guardian

“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

“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.” —The Independent

“Cockburn essentially pioneered the modern persona for which Christopher Hitchens became much better known: the fancily Oxford-educated leftie Brit littérateur/journalist who would say all the outrageous things his bland Yank counterparts lacked the wit, courage, erudition, or épater-spirit to utter on their own … Cockburn was far more committed and purposeful in his outrageousness.” —The Atlantic