Sat, 28 Jan 2006

BHL, as reviewed by the NY Times

Having lived in France for a few years in the early nineties, it was hard not to notice BHL. Also called Bernhard-Henry Lévy. In France, if you are somebody, you get called by your initials. BHL, the philosopher turned into a media-savvy writer and journalist was just about everywhere. Even I ended buying one of his tomes. [For those unaware of the cult of BHL, compare the very lengthy and admiring French Wikipedia article with the disclaimer-sporting short and sceptical English counterpart, or even, for completeness, the barely existing German one.]

Well, fast-forward a dozen years and who marches onto Jon Stewart's stage at the Daily Show this Wednesday: Bingo, BHL himself. In the usual uniform: suit, spotless white shirt, perfect hair, though less of it than in the days. In rather passable English he gets to plug his new book on travelling the States. Of course, it's tough to be French and to write about the US as de Tocqueville is the inevitable comparison...

So tough that the comparison has to turn into a take-down somewhere. Today's NY Times has a review of said book that is so highly entertaining that I cannot help but recommend it most highly, even if you never heard of BHL before. If the Times is this vitriolic, I can't even begin to imagine what a review in the WSJ would do to the poor man...

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