While not ground breaking I’ve always found his writings to be an easy and interesting read. His Trafficked Women of Mongolia article comes to mind as some of his best work.

Good on him for putting himself out there and having a crack at making a living as a freelance writer by relaying observations of a twenty-something living in China.

Shit. The Sebag-Montefiore brand has produced some pretty good historians.

Poor Clarissa. It must be a case of clogs-to-clogs in three generations.

On that note, I have an advance review copy of “Apologies to My Censor: The High and Low Adventures of a Foreigner in China” and can honestly report that it is a rather uninteresting read. Mitch convinced some naive editor in New York that working as an average polisher at China Daily somehow gained him “access” into behind-the-scenes State censorship secrets – which is to say about as much access as Anthony Tao had while working at Beijing Today.

The self-aggrandizing premise of the book revolves around Mitch acting like he was some sort of insider in China journalism, laced with superfluous descriptions of himself in rather mundane “exotic, dangerous China!” situations, exaggerated expat stories and embellished accounts of all his journalistic “accomplishments”. The writing is 8th-grade level, and utterly unmemorable. How or why Harper Perennial (Peter Hessler’s label) ever agreed to publish Mitch remains a mystery.

My predictions for “Apologies to My Censor”: Harper Perennial will do their duty to have it reviewed in a few big papers, where it will receive tepid ratings. Mitch will hit up all his editor friends like Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore to review it in the Beijing magazines, and she will swallow her professional pride to write a glowing review as a favor for him because reviewers like Sebag-Montefiore also know the career benefits of maintaining relationships with “it” boys on big labels like Mitch. Finally, Mitch will tap into his social network of Canadian college buddies to all give it 5-star reviews on Amazon so as to fool ignorant western readers who have never been to China.

But in the end, “Apologies to My Censor” is not a book anyone will ever read twice, or keep on their bookshelf, or discuss (except perhaps as a kind of in-joke among those expats writers personally who know Mitch). It probably won’t survive a second printing, and eventually even Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore will have moved on to the next “it author”.

So put your knives away and don’t hate on Mitch too hard. Let him enjoy his 15 minutes. Chance are most of you have more writing talent in your little finger than Mitch does his whole tall frame, so just keep working on your own craft. Image-conscious ego maniacs like Mitch have a shelf life of only a few years, but true writing talent is forever.

Even Rogers Pay: Anyone who has worked with Mitch knows there are 2 sides to his personality: the dapper, shit-eating-grinning, smooth-talking, glad-to-meet-you, pretend writer for editors, prospective employers and women he wants to take to bed, and the scummy, back-stabbing, fuck-you-i-already-got-what-i-wanted hack for fellow writers he betrayed, editors who didn’t give him an assignment, and women he already screwed.

Canadian or not, you obviously only knew one side of Mitch. Consider yourself fortunate. Sour grapes? Perhaps, because nobody likes to see a scoundrel come out ahead, and Mitch clearly came out ahead – on the backs of better writers and better human beings.