CORRESPONDENCE

To the Editor:

Your reviewer Richard Schickel whines at the opening of his notice of “Vanity Fair’s Hollywood” (Book Review, Dec. 10) that it is “a bulky book, hard to hold for long on your lap.” He then quotes from (and misunderstands) the very first page of the introduction and the very first of the portrait captions. If you can’t find an intellectually tough reviewer, could you not at least look for a physically robust one? Failing that, might you not supply him with a stout table that will support both his elbows and the pages you are paying him to turn? The weight of a book and the lightness of a reviewer should not be so poorly matched, or perhaps I mean proportioned.

Christopher Hitchens

Washington D.C.

Richard Schickel replies:

Ahh, that’s more like it: The Christopher Hitchens whom we love somewhat more than we loathe--funny, flailing, outrageous. Where was he when “Vanity Fair’s Hollywood” really needed him?