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A Stay Against Boredom: NY Times Review of Cockburn's A Colossal Wreck

Hélène Barthélemy13 November 2013

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After gathering much homage, Alexander Cockburn's spirited book, A Colossal Wreckhas collected a new ardent review, this time in the New York Times. Its author, Dwight Garner, hails Cockburn's last book as "a stay against boredom." 

A stay indeed. Quoting several passages of Colossal Wreck and lauding Cockburn's wit and original political astuteness, Garner predicts it a vigorous lifetime and continued relevance:

Collections of political essays, even those presented in offbeat form, as is this one, tend to date quickly. “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. He was interested in everything.

As Garner writes: "it’s alive on every page, this thing; its feisty sentences wriggle."

Visit The New York Times to read the review in full.