Ministry of truth  Andy Croft reads Orwell's Victory by
Christopher Hitchens, and dares to argue with both author and
subject  Orwell's Victory Christopher Hitchens 150pp, Penguin,
£12.99  This is, as you would expect from a combination of
George Orwell and Christopher Hitchens, a robust and provocative
read. Hitchens clearly identifies with his subject, and at times
appears to be writing about himself as much as about Orwell.
Like Orwell's own best prose, it is a strongly argued, chatty
and witty book, combining acute close readings (the comparison
between Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Lucky Jim is particularly
good) with personal anecdote, a generous aside here and a knee
in the groin there.  Unfortunately, this kind of swashbuckling,
pugnacious style tends - as so often with Orwell - to slippery
generalisations and dreadful overwriting ("he had dirt under his
fingernails and an understanding of the rhythms of nature";
"when Spain was menaced by fascism he was among the first to
shoulder a rifle and feel t