Publication
ATLANTIC BOOKS (2001), Edition: Main
Original publication date
2012
Collections
Genres
Awards
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2012)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2012)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (Nonfiction — 2012)
Description
"Courageous, insightful and candid thoughts on malady and mortality from one of our most celebrated writers"--Provided by the publisher.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Cariola
While I may not have always agreed with Christopher Hitchens, I always admired him. He was a light whose brilliance could not be denied, a writer and thinker whose unique voice resounded through the last 40 years of British and American culture. Mortality is a short collection of essays written by
The thing I loved most about Hitch is that he was never afraid to say out loud or in print what other people were probably thinking but generally kept to themselves. Here, he has plenty to say about clichéed cancer metaphors and euphemisms (like "battling cancer," which comes with the built-in assumption that those who "lose the battle" just haven't fought hard enough. He's at his best telling stories about the hypocrites around him, like the woman in a checkout line who tells him about a relative who had liver cancer, beat it for awhile, then got it again and died--in her opinion, "because he was gay." Was this intended to give Hitchens--a staunch atheist--hope, push him towards a god who would be so feebly vengeful ("Why not a lightning bolt?"), or what? Hitchens is also brutally honest about the devastation of both cancer and chemotherapy--honest, but without wallowing in self-pity. It's as if his own body has become a subject of observation and investigation.
While it's sad, yes, to have lost Christopher Hitchens, Mortality isn't the depressing read you might imagine. It reflects the humor, brilliance, vitality, and clear-eyed realism that readers came to expect from him.
Show More
Hitchens in the last 18 months of his life, a clear-eyed view of his experience with esophageal cancer and the various treatments he endured in hopes of buying some time. The thing I loved most about Hitch is that he was never afraid to say out loud or in print what other people were probably thinking but generally kept to themselves. Here, he has plenty to say about clichéed cancer metaphors and euphemisms (like "battling cancer," which comes with the built-in assumption that those who "lose the battle" just haven't fought hard enough. He's at his best telling stories about the hypocrites around him, like the woman in a checkout line who tells him about a relative who had liver cancer, beat it for awhile, then got it again and died--in her opinion, "because he was gay." Was this intended to give Hitchens--a staunch atheist--hope, push him towards a god who would be so feebly vengeful ("Why not a lightning bolt?"), or what? Hitchens is also brutally honest about the devastation of both cancer and chemotherapy--honest, but without wallowing in self-pity. It's as if his own body has become a subject of observation and investigation.
While it's sad, yes, to have lost Christopher Hitchens, Mortality isn't the depressing read you might imagine. It reflects the humor, brilliance, vitality, and clear-eyed realism that readers came to expect from him.
Show Less
LibraryThing member etxgardener
Christopher Hitchens was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer in June, 2010 six month after my husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 gastric cancer and I read the first few essays contained in this book in Vanity Fair while I was accompanying him to his chemotherapy treatments. I remember being
Re-reading these essays, now in book form, I am once again in awe of his powerful intellect, his writing skills, and his mordant sense of humor at an extremely difficult time. For years, whenever the new issue of Vanity Fair arrived in my mailbox, I would turn to read either his latest article.. I can't do that anymore, but this book is a powerful reminder of what ther world of letters has lost.
Show More
struck at the time with how clear-eyed he was about his illness and how he remained staunchly atheist in his outlook towards life despite what seemed to be his own impending death.Re-reading these essays, now in book form, I am once again in awe of his powerful intellect, his writing skills, and his mordant sense of humor at an extremely difficult time. For years, whenever the new issue of Vanity Fair arrived in my mailbox, I would turn to read either his latest article.. I can't do that anymore, but this book is a powerful reminder of what ther world of letters has lost.
Show Less
LibraryThing member phebj
This is primarily a collection of essays that appeared in Vanity Fair magazine. It’s a short but powerful read that Hitchens was hoping to turn into a longer book about his 19 months of “living dyingly” after being diagnosed with Stage IV esophageal cancer in June of 2010. While he hoped for
The essays cover such things as: “Christian” online commenters betting on whether he’d renounce his atheism before he died, or worse, the person who wrote about his cancer being “God’s revenge for using his voice to blaspheme him”; a short handbook of cancer etiquette for people who don’t know what to say to someone who has cancer and end up saying something totally inappropriate; his fascination with genomics and the cutting edge treatments he received; and his great fear of losing the ability to speak and write as side effects of his treatments.
Here are a couple of quotes I liked about his love of the spoken and written word:
“The most satisfying compliment a reader can pay is to tell me that he or she feels personally addressed. Think of your own favorite authors and see if that isn’t precisely one of the things that engages you, often at first without your noticing it. A good conversation is the only human equivalent: the realizing that decent points are being made and understood, that irony is in play, and elaboration, and that a dull or obvious remark would be almost physically hurtful.”
“I often grandly say that writing is not just my living and my livelihood but my very life, and it’s true. . . . I feel my personality and identity dissolving as I contemplate dead hands and the loss of the transmission belts that connect me to writing and thinking.”
One of the saddest parts of the book to me was the Afterword by his wife, Carol Blue. Hitchens' essays deal mostly with his illness and he faces it head on and matter-of-factly. His wife talks about his life before that. I loved the following quote which described how good his life used to be:
“At home at one of the raucous, joyous, impromptu eight-hour dinners we often found ourselves hosting, where the table was so crammed with ambassadors, hacks, political dissidents, college students, and children that elbows were colliding and it was hard to find the space to put down a glass of wine, my husband would rise to give a toast that could go on for a stirring, spellbinding, hysterically funny twenty minutes of poetry and limerick reciting, a call to arms for a cause, and jokes. ‘How good it is to be us,’ he would say in his perfect voice.”
Fittingly, her final comments are about how she still hears Hitchens’ voice when she goes into their library at home and reads his papers and the notes he wrote in his books.
This is the first book I've read by Hitchens and I highly recommend it. Like his wife, I'm very thankful that we still have his writings. And I did feel as if he were personally addressing me in this book (with the exception of the few times he used words I've never heard of). 4 1/2 stars
Show More
a cure he knew from the beginning that his chances were not good (somewhere between 5 and 20 percent depending on who he talked to and which treatments he considered).The essays cover such things as: “Christian” online commenters betting on whether he’d renounce his atheism before he died, or worse, the person who wrote about his cancer being “God’s revenge for using his voice to blaspheme him”; a short handbook of cancer etiquette for people who don’t know what to say to someone who has cancer and end up saying something totally inappropriate; his fascination with genomics and the cutting edge treatments he received; and his great fear of losing the ability to speak and write as side effects of his treatments.
Here are a couple of quotes I liked about his love of the spoken and written word:
“The most satisfying compliment a reader can pay is to tell me that he or she feels personally addressed. Think of your own favorite authors and see if that isn’t precisely one of the things that engages you, often at first without your noticing it. A good conversation is the only human equivalent: the realizing that decent points are being made and understood, that irony is in play, and elaboration, and that a dull or obvious remark would be almost physically hurtful.”
“I often grandly say that writing is not just my living and my livelihood but my very life, and it’s true. . . . I feel my personality and identity dissolving as I contemplate dead hands and the loss of the transmission belts that connect me to writing and thinking.”
One of the saddest parts of the book to me was the Afterword by his wife, Carol Blue. Hitchens' essays deal mostly with his illness and he faces it head on and matter-of-factly. His wife talks about his life before that. I loved the following quote which described how good his life used to be:
“At home at one of the raucous, joyous, impromptu eight-hour dinners we often found ourselves hosting, where the table was so crammed with ambassadors, hacks, political dissidents, college students, and children that elbows were colliding and it was hard to find the space to put down a glass of wine, my husband would rise to give a toast that could go on for a stirring, spellbinding, hysterically funny twenty minutes of poetry and limerick reciting, a call to arms for a cause, and jokes. ‘How good it is to be us,’ he would say in his perfect voice.”
Fittingly, her final comments are about how she still hears Hitchens’ voice when she goes into their library at home and reads his papers and the notes he wrote in his books.
This is the first book I've read by Hitchens and I highly recommend it. Like his wife, I'm very thankful that we still have his writings. And I did feel as if he were personally addressing me in this book (with the exception of the few times he used words I've never heard of). 4 1/2 stars
Show Less
LibraryThing member rmckeown
Incredibly, Mortality, Christopher Hitchens’s essays on his slow walk to death, all have an air of seriousness, of course, but a vein of humor runs through them like a stream of cool water. I read this 104-page gem in a single sitting. This includes a forward by Graydon Carter, the editor of
According to her, “Hitch” – as his friends and readers affectionately knew him – wrote up until the end. In fact, the main point of the book is writing. His greatest fear seemed to be the loss of his ability to write. During the final stages, speech became almost impossible, but he kept writing away. The last chapter consists of fragments, which “seem to trail off, but in fact were written on his computer in bursts of energy and enthusiasm as he sat in the hospital using his food tray for a desk” (103) as Carol Blue says.
Hitch gave some advice to writing students, which I have shared with my writing classes. He would begin, “by saying that anybody who could talk could also write. Having cheered them up with this easy-to-grasp ladder, I then replaced it with a huge and loathsome snake: ‘How many people in the class, would you say, can talk? I mean really talk?’ This had its duly woeful effect.” He then added this advice: “Avoid stock expressions (like the plague, as William Safire used to say) and repetitions. … So, this above all: Find your own voice” (50).
He wrote on an incredibly wide variety of topics, but I did not always agree with him, particularly in regard to his support of the Iraq War; however, I always loved his prose, his way with words, his humor, and his evident love of the English language. Mortality is a sad good bye to and from Hitch.
Reading this meditation upon his impending death, inspired me to dig into the recently published mammoth, Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens. At nearly a thousand pages, it contains well over a hundred of his essays. I would rarely sit down and begin reading something like this from cover to cover, so I devised a plan -- an homage -- to Hitch. Starting on Sunday, September 16, 2012, I read one essay every night before bed. It will take more than three months, but that will be my own meditation on the loss of one of the great writers and orators of the 20th and 21st centuries. 5 stars
--Jim, 9/22/12
Show More
Vanity Fair, for whom Hitchens wrote for many years, and an Afterword by his wife, Carol Blue.According to her, “Hitch” – as his friends and readers affectionately knew him – wrote up until the end. In fact, the main point of the book is writing. His greatest fear seemed to be the loss of his ability to write. During the final stages, speech became almost impossible, but he kept writing away. The last chapter consists of fragments, which “seem to trail off, but in fact were written on his computer in bursts of energy and enthusiasm as he sat in the hospital using his food tray for a desk” (103) as Carol Blue says.
Hitch gave some advice to writing students, which I have shared with my writing classes. He would begin, “by saying that anybody who could talk could also write. Having cheered them up with this easy-to-grasp ladder, I then replaced it with a huge and loathsome snake: ‘How many people in the class, would you say, can talk? I mean really talk?’ This had its duly woeful effect.” He then added this advice: “Avoid stock expressions (like the plague, as William Safire used to say) and repetitions. … So, this above all: Find your own voice” (50).
He wrote on an incredibly wide variety of topics, but I did not always agree with him, particularly in regard to his support of the Iraq War; however, I always loved his prose, his way with words, his humor, and his evident love of the English language. Mortality is a sad good bye to and from Hitch.
Reading this meditation upon his impending death, inspired me to dig into the recently published mammoth, Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens. At nearly a thousand pages, it contains well over a hundred of his essays. I would rarely sit down and begin reading something like this from cover to cover, so I devised a plan -- an homage -- to Hitch. Starting on Sunday, September 16, 2012, I read one essay every night before bed. It will take more than three months, but that will be my own meditation on the loss of one of the great writers and orators of the 20th and 21st centuries. 5 stars
--Jim, 9/22/12
Show Less
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens is a wonderful contemporary memento mori. While many of Hitchens's books are polemic, Mortality breathes the spirit of humanism, as it forms a quiet reflection on the authors' last months of life, in which contemplation of religion finds its place alongside
The final chapters of unedited notes,give an insight in the process of writing, as they sharply contrast with the eloquence of the composition of the previous chapters.
Mortality is a dignified coda to a life of writing.
Show More
literature.The final chapters of unedited notes,give an insight in the process of writing, as they sharply contrast with the eloquence of the composition of the previous chapters.
Mortality is a dignified coda to a life of writing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member schatzi
I first discovered Christopher Hitchens' writing when I was a fledgling little atheist living in a very rural, very conservative, very religious part of America. Even though I had some issues with the first book I read (God is Not Great) and the man himself (his support for the Iraq war), he still
Hitchens takes the reader along in his journey of dying. From relating how he first learned of the cancer that would ultimately kill him to the indignities of treatment, he is honest and even a little humorous. The book is brilliant, heartbreaking, and beautiful. How does an atheist die? You'll see it here: sticking with the principles that governed his life. It's a shame that the world was robbed of his voice so soon.
Show More
helped me immensely with his work. When I discovered that he had cancer and it was likely terminal, I was saddened in a way that would mostly be reserved for close friends.Hitchens takes the reader along in his journey of dying. From relating how he first learned of the cancer that would ultimately kill him to the indignities of treatment, he is honest and even a little humorous. The book is brilliant, heartbreaking, and beautiful. How does an atheist die? You'll see it here: sticking with the principles that governed his life. It's a shame that the world was robbed of his voice so soon.
Show Less
LibraryThing member speljamr
It is difficult not to be moved by the words of a dying man, but it's even harder when those words come from a man who is so eloquent in his writing. These are the final writings of the late Christopher Hitchens and they hold very little back when describing exactly what it is to go through the
This should be a must read for anyone who cares about the human condition while facing our mortality. It is a short read and does not require a large amount of time to complete. Included at the end are notes and snippets left behind that had not yet been turned into full writings and a final chapter from Chrostopher Hitchens wife. As she admits, in the end, Christopher Hitchens always had the last word, and does so again with this book.
Show More
attempt at fighting the cancer killing you from the inside. The words bring home the feeling of what it really means to face your own mortality, and I'm not sure anyone else could have put the open face on it the way only Christopher Hitchens did. While not always as uplifting and positive in the way Randy Pausch’s 'The Last Lecture' was, it is extremely honest.This should be a must read for anyone who cares about the human condition while facing our mortality. It is a short read and does not require a large amount of time to complete. Included at the end are notes and snippets left behind that had not yet been turned into full writings and a final chapter from Chrostopher Hitchens wife. As she admits, in the end, Christopher Hitchens always had the last word, and does so again with this book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Kitscot
In a scene from my all time favourite film, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, Woody starts to recount those things that make life worth living. I have played this game with friends many times over the years. My list of things that make life worth living is; (family and friends are a given), Woody Allen of
I have been putting off the reading of Mortality for sometime knowing full well the subject matter contained within its pages; not only the last words of a superlative orator and writer but details of his horrendous illness, oesophageal cancer. My cowardice probably also stems from the knowledge that I am less than ten years away from the age that Christopher Hitchens died, 62.
As to be expected the writing is not self-piteous, there is no element of self-aggrandizement in any of its 106 pages. Mr Hitchens style of writing makes one want to go around pulping every pencil, drain every pen and smash ones keyboard knowing that you will probably never write as well as he did. However, I am sure Christopher Hitchens would want you to buy new pencils, refill those pens and repair that keyboard and attempt to equal or better his writing.
In ‘Mortality’, as to be expected, religion rears its ugly head in the form of monotheists letting Mr Hitchens know that he deserves to die, that God has struck him down in vengeance. Christopher Hitchens in his usual pithy and direct manner surmised that God was rather mundane and routine in his vengeance to give him oesophageal cancer which was highly likely to occur anyway due to his heavy smoking.
My honorific review can never fully convey the extent of how wonderful the book is without falling into the quicksand of cliché. So, I will simply end this review with a direct and succinct command: READ THIS BOOK!
Show More
course, the film Manhattan, Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway, Salvador Dali’s ‘Christ of St John on the Cross’, Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex, Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’, Morecambe and Wise, Peacock Butterflies, David Hockney’s ‘A Bigger Splash’, Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’, The Edinburgh Book Festival, David Sylvian, Philip Glass etc. Over the years there have been a few additions. Christopher Hitchens became one of those additions. I have been putting off the reading of Mortality for sometime knowing full well the subject matter contained within its pages; not only the last words of a superlative orator and writer but details of his horrendous illness, oesophageal cancer. My cowardice probably also stems from the knowledge that I am less than ten years away from the age that Christopher Hitchens died, 62.
As to be expected the writing is not self-piteous, there is no element of self-aggrandizement in any of its 106 pages. Mr Hitchens style of writing makes one want to go around pulping every pencil, drain every pen and smash ones keyboard knowing that you will probably never write as well as he did. However, I am sure Christopher Hitchens would want you to buy new pencils, refill those pens and repair that keyboard and attempt to equal or better his writing.
In ‘Mortality’, as to be expected, religion rears its ugly head in the form of monotheists letting Mr Hitchens know that he deserves to die, that God has struck him down in vengeance. Christopher Hitchens in his usual pithy and direct manner surmised that God was rather mundane and routine in his vengeance to give him oesophageal cancer which was highly likely to occur anyway due to his heavy smoking.
My honorific review can never fully convey the extent of how wonderful the book is without falling into the quicksand of cliché. So, I will simply end this review with a direct and succinct command: READ THIS BOOK!
Show Less
LibraryThing member Sullywriter
Staring death straight in the face with eloquence and raw, unflinching honesty.
LibraryThing member freelancer_frank
This is a book about the act of dying. It is a fittingly short, heroic and tragic experience.
LibraryThing member ccayne
Hitchens is always a pleasure. Death is hard to stare down (I imagine) yet he did it. The hole he left behind for his family and friends must be immense.
LibraryThing member peirastic
Having just finished this short book, I am experiencing the most acute bout of melancholia. Hitch's final writings carried not an air of resignation or fatalism, but of acceptance. Nor was there an instance of pessimism. As such it was not his writings, but his wife's that generated this feeling of
Hitch, the public intellectual, the orator, the author, the journalist, the mind, the persona.
Hitch, my greatest influence.
Show More
heavy-heartedness. A page dedicated to Hitch's devotion to his friends. A passage detailing the power of his voice. Affecting, moving, emotive.Hitch, the public intellectual, the orator, the author, the journalist, the mind, the persona.
Hitch, my greatest influence.
Show Less
LibraryThing member knightlight777
I am a fan of the late Mr. Hitchens so my bias would show through in probably anything I would write on him. This final book of his was his farewell to us in relationship to his live being slowly brought to and end by the illness that takes so many.
In his usual style his commentary on all sorts of
It is sad to see such a gifted communicator take his leave from us. But for the many thought provoking ideas and discussions he has left us, he lives on.
Christopher Hitchens has moved on to the great unknown, and whatever it might or might not be I am sure he is busily recording his thoughts on the matter.
In his usual style his commentary on all sorts of
Show More
subplots from medical treatment to told you so condemnations by the zealots and mere zealot believers is there for our perusal.It is sad to see such a gifted communicator take his leave from us. But for the many thought provoking ideas and discussions he has left us, he lives on.
Christopher Hitchens has moved on to the great unknown, and whatever it might or might not be I am sure he is busily recording his thoughts on the matter.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SamSattler
Christopher Hitchens was a remarkable and fearless man who remained true to himself and his beliefs right up until the moment that esophageal cancer claimed his life in December 2011. Admittedly, Hitchens was a man of excesses, and his lifestyle largely contributed to his death at the relatively
Christopher Hitchens was, of course, not a man without enemies – thousands of them – and, early in his struggle to rid himself of the tumor that killed him, he became aware that “some who have long wished me ill” were rooting for the “blind, emotionless alien” of a tumor that was killing him. If he had not been so outspoken about his atheism and disillusionment with liberal politics, it is likely that far fewer would have openly gloated about his illness. But if the effectiveness of a man’s arguments can be measured by the number of his enemies, Christopher Hitchens was an extremely effective debater. The man knew he had enemies – and he loved it.
I do suspect that admirers of Christopher Hitchens will have already read some of what is in Mortality because portions of the book were published previously as Vanity Fair magazine essays. Although this might disappoint some readers, keep in mind that the observations Hitchens makes about living with cancer, enduring months of chemotherapy, and the specific “etiquette” of the disease are so frankly presented that they remain as powerful on subsequent readings as they are on the first. And, capturing the essays in one volume the way Mortality does, makes it easy to keep them together for re-reading.
Hitchens was well aware that many people were wondering whether he would turn to religion before his death. He even stumbled upon a “Place Bets” video inviting people to bet on whether he would “repudiate (his) atheism and embrace religion by a certain date or continue to affirm unbelief and take the hellish consequences.” While he generally found this kind of thing to be more amusing than annoying, Hitchens offers a rather poignant thought about all those prayers supposedly being said on his behalf:
“Suppose I ditch the principles I have held for a lifetime, in the hope of gaining favor at the last minute? I hope and trust that no serious person would be at all impressed by such a hucksterish choice. Meanwhile, the god who would reward cowardice and dishonesty and punish irreconcilable doubt is among the many gods in which (whom?) I do not believe. I don’t mean to be churlish about any kind intentions, but when September 20 comes (the official “Everybody Pray for Hitchens” day), please do not trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries. Unless, of course, it makes you feel better.”
Pure Hitchens…all the way to the end.
Rated at 5.0
Show More
young age of sixty-two. But it is unlikely that he gave much thought to the destructiveness of such a lifestyle until the 2010 book tour during which he was suddenly hospitalized because of the agonizing pain he experienced around his chest and thorax. Eighteen months later, Hitchens would be dead, but he spent much of his remaining time writing about his personal journey through what he called “Tumorville.” That work is captured in Mortality, the little 104-page memoir on dying he left behind.Christopher Hitchens was, of course, not a man without enemies – thousands of them – and, early in his struggle to rid himself of the tumor that killed him, he became aware that “some who have long wished me ill” were rooting for the “blind, emotionless alien” of a tumor that was killing him. If he had not been so outspoken about his atheism and disillusionment with liberal politics, it is likely that far fewer would have openly gloated about his illness. But if the effectiveness of a man’s arguments can be measured by the number of his enemies, Christopher Hitchens was an extremely effective debater. The man knew he had enemies – and he loved it.
I do suspect that admirers of Christopher Hitchens will have already read some of what is in Mortality because portions of the book were published previously as Vanity Fair magazine essays. Although this might disappoint some readers, keep in mind that the observations Hitchens makes about living with cancer, enduring months of chemotherapy, and the specific “etiquette” of the disease are so frankly presented that they remain as powerful on subsequent readings as they are on the first. And, capturing the essays in one volume the way Mortality does, makes it easy to keep them together for re-reading.
Hitchens was well aware that many people were wondering whether he would turn to religion before his death. He even stumbled upon a “Place Bets” video inviting people to bet on whether he would “repudiate (his) atheism and embrace religion by a certain date or continue to affirm unbelief and take the hellish consequences.” While he generally found this kind of thing to be more amusing than annoying, Hitchens offers a rather poignant thought about all those prayers supposedly being said on his behalf:
“Suppose I ditch the principles I have held for a lifetime, in the hope of gaining favor at the last minute? I hope and trust that no serious person would be at all impressed by such a hucksterish choice. Meanwhile, the god who would reward cowardice and dishonesty and punish irreconcilable doubt is among the many gods in which (whom?) I do not believe. I don’t mean to be churlish about any kind intentions, but when September 20 comes (the official “Everybody Pray for Hitchens” day), please do not trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries. Unless, of course, it makes you feel better.”
Pure Hitchens…all the way to the end.
Rated at 5.0
Show Less
LibraryThing member PickledOnion42
This is a spectacularly powerful book. It is short – regrettably so – yet the emotive force of each paragraph is potent; I am not usually an 'emotional' reader, but I must admit to a slight watering of the eyes as I read the unfinished fragments and considered how the author had fully expected
Even as he writes about his own mortality Hitchens remains as cogent as ever – there is no self-pity here and no cowardly last-minute renunciation of his values. He relates his experience of treatment stoically, not lamenting the future treatments just out of his reach but delighted that he can see them, enthusiastic about the relief they promise to bring future sufferers; caring for his fellow primates to the end.
He takes time to refute the gloating claim that he is in the grip of divine punishment, and in true Hitchens style even dedicates a few pages to the task of criticising the late professor Randy Pausch of 'The Last Lecture' for inflicting his lecture on students and colleagues: "It should bear its own health warning:" he writes, "so sugary that you may need an insulin shot to withstand it;" following on to quip: "it ought to be an offense to be excruciating and unfunny in circumstances where your audience is almost morally obliged to enthuse." As he fears losing the ability to write, one can't help thinking that the real loss would be not to the author, but to the reader.
Following the final fragment, Hitchens' pen is taken up by Carol Blue, his widow, for a moving afterword written with affection and dignity. She has lost a loving husband, and we have lost a wonderful mind.
Show More
to return to them some time soon.Even as he writes about his own mortality Hitchens remains as cogent as ever – there is no self-pity here and no cowardly last-minute renunciation of his values. He relates his experience of treatment stoically, not lamenting the future treatments just out of his reach but delighted that he can see them, enthusiastic about the relief they promise to bring future sufferers; caring for his fellow primates to the end.
He takes time to refute the gloating claim that he is in the grip of divine punishment, and in true Hitchens style even dedicates a few pages to the task of criticising the late professor Randy Pausch of 'The Last Lecture' for inflicting his lecture on students and colleagues: "It should bear its own health warning:" he writes, "so sugary that you may need an insulin shot to withstand it;" following on to quip: "it ought to be an offense to be excruciating and unfunny in circumstances where your audience is almost morally obliged to enthuse." As he fears losing the ability to write, one can't help thinking that the real loss would be not to the author, but to the reader.
Following the final fragment, Hitchens' pen is taken up by Carol Blue, his widow, for a moving afterword written with affection and dignity. She has lost a loving husband, and we have lost a wonderful mind.
Show Less
LibraryThing member realbigcat
Christopher Hitchens writes in a short book his life ending battle with cancer. Of course it's sad you know that before you start but Hitchens pulls no punches. How can you say a book about dying is good but his writing is brave and shows his courage in what is ultimately a losing battle. I guess I
Show More
didn't think how the book would end but there is a great afterward by Hitchen's wife. He writes without self pity and with incredible wit. He even criticizes the late Randy Pausch who wrote "The Last Lecture.' It's obvious he had a great impact on many people and was well liked and loved and will be greatly missed. Show Less
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
This is proving very hard to write about.
Hitch was a writer, to his core. I know this just through the sense of his writings - that's how I met so many other interesting people. It was something which defined him.
To this extent, it's not too surprising that new books come out after he has passed.
He was funny, provocative, and challenging. I recall even some Christians who were truly saddened to hear of his passing. Of course there was no hope for a deathbed conversion for him. He'd spit in God's eye and raise a toast in hell.
Enough of my rambling. He'd not want it. Read the thing. Even if you agree with him. Especially if you disagree with him. He is proud in the face of death and what peaceful nothing comes after. This is how a true non-believer dies.
Hitch was a writer, to his core. I know this just through the sense of his writings - that's how I met so many other interesting people. It was something which defined him.
To this extent, it's not too surprising that new books come out after he has passed.
Show More
This little collection of essays are meditative, a little self-pitying, but mostly as dignified as cancer would let him be. Fierce and stoic, almost up to the very end. He was funny, provocative, and challenging. I recall even some Christians who were truly saddened to hear of his passing. Of course there was no hope for a deathbed conversion for him. He'd spit in God's eye and raise a toast in hell.
Enough of my rambling. He'd not want it. Read the thing. Even if you agree with him. Especially if you disagree with him. He is proud in the face of death and what peaceful nothing comes after. This is how a true non-believer dies.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Faradaydon
Brilliant, but best appreciated by someone who's been treated for cancer
LibraryThing member Beamis12
hat can I say about a well written book about the author's own death. Poignant, humorous in parts, intelligent, and all the other adjectives one uses when a book has imprinted a lasting impression.
LibraryThing member everfresh1
It's both very depressing and inspiring. You really should have read other Hitchens books to really appreciate those essays he wrote while dying of cancer - gathered in this postmortem edition. Remarkable. What does it take to be so intellectually honest to the very end.
LibraryThing member MSarki
In a short couple of weeks it will be one year ago that Christopher Hitchens finally died from the devastating effects of esophageal lung cancer. December 15, 2011 is a very sad day for me at least. There is nothing worth saying, especially in my case, of his "passing" or his journey to "a better
Show More
place". Mortality, the book, is a brilliant and important work left to us from Hitchens, and for those of us presently dying a bit more each day, a death guide we might follow comfortably. There is no admittance by Hitchens in the book of his death being "God's will" but instead an argument, among others, over how it is not and never could be. I was completely surprised with this book and how much I liked it given the darker premise of the cancerous battle made first on the throat of Christopher Hitchens followed by the rest of his weakened body until his pen would abruptly fall silent. He wrote much and spoke even more. He never quit living robustly as long as he was alive. He will always be remembered by the devoted mass who read and will eventually read his books. And that is better than the final results measured among the lives of most of us. Show Less
LibraryThing member mahallett
short-2 hours- and sad. dying is sad. you're gone!. i've had cancer too and the battle imagery irritated me too. i'm not fighting anything. there are no winners, really. losing means you die. winning is just not dying. losing doesn't mean you did something wrong and winning doesn't mean you did
Show More
something well. Show Less
LibraryThing member BenjaminHahn
This is a triumphant little collection of writings that Christopher Hitchens wrote after he learned of his fatal cancer diagnosis. As an atheist and an accomplished writer, Hitchens' offers a unique view on impending death quite in his signature biting sarcasm and wit. The essays are good, but if
Show More
you are familiar with his other writings, many of the points he makes in these pages may seem familiar to you. Still, if anything, this short book illustrates Hitchens' resoluteness and steadfastness when it came to what he believed to be the truth. When facing certain death in the face, Hitchens stuck to reason and logic as he pondered the end game. That's hard to do and I appreciate that he shared this one last experience with us. Show Less
LibraryThing member dtn620
Not sad, not profound, but brave. Hitchens takes on his cancer and his dying in an admirably (and somehow impossibly) stoic yet gentle way. More than the other two books I've read by Hitchens this one is propelling me towards his other works, especially Hitch-22 which I have been sitting on for
Show More
sometime now. Show Less
LibraryThing member lynndp
From Nancy Olson - Facing his terminal illness, Hitchens brilliantly and candidly shares his thoughts on his suffering, the "etiquette of illness and wellness," and religion in this powerful, thought provoking memoir. I found his courage inspiring. I'm sure I'll reread this little book often.
Media reviews
The book takes us on the journey from June of 2010 (when Hitchens was diagnosed) to December of 2011 (when he died). What a beautiful, awful journey it was. Samuel Johnson said that "The prospect of being hanged focuses the mind wonderfully." Hitchens was not being hanged, unless you mean that
Show More
metaphorically, but his literate mind stayed focused and articulate. He goes into the rich detail of his body becoming a "reservoir of pain," meditates on the old wheeze that pain makes us better people, offers thoughts on whether the phrase "the war on cancer" is appropriate, and reveals that near the end he became a willing morphine junky: "How happily I measured off my day as I saw the injection being readied." Show Less
Being in Christopher’s company was rarely sobering, but always exhilarating. It is, however, sobering and grief-inducing to read this brave and harrowing account of his “year of living dyingly” in the grip of the alien that succeeded where none of his debate opponents had in bringing him
Show More
down. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9781848879232
Physical description
128 p.; 5.12 inches
Pages
128