Mortality by Christopher Hitchens: book review

Mortality (2012) is written by columnist, literary critic, author, and contributing editor of magazines such as Vanity Fair, Times Literary Supplement, Atlantic, and New Statesman. He also wrote the controversial bestseller God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007).

Hitchens (1949-2011) was British and gained his American citizenship in 2007. He commences with the day of his diagnosis for esophagus cancer: June 2010. He is on a book tour in New York, promoting his memoir Hitch-22 (2010). He is 61 years old, at a time when his memoir enters the bestseller list and he has just gained a lifetime of free upgrades on his airline loyalty card.

Mortality is a short book of 106 pages and eight chapters, all previously published in some form in his Vanity Fair column over 19 months.

Hitchens writes of the randomness of cancer (it doesn’t discriminate), religion (‘this invites potential punters to put money on whether I will repudiate my atheism and embrace religion by a certain date or continue to affirm unbelief and take the hellish consequences’), the copious amount of advice he receives on cures and treatments, and cancer etiquette (how to answer the question ‘how are you?’ or adopt the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ stance).

He writes about the changes in his body, voice, and appearance – or more correctly, he writes of the loss of functions and functioning, and the loss of weight and body mass. He writes about the pain and how to describe it – ‘grave discomfort’ doesn’t seem to be adequate. He uses quotes liberally, such as one from author Kingsley Amis – ‘Death has this much to be said for it: You don’t have to get out of bed for it.’

Hitchens was a polarizing figure – a controversial writer and speaker. Whatever readers think of his opinions and views, Hitchens remains lucid, witty, insightful, and questioning – rarely morbid – right to the end.

The book contains an Afterword by Carol Blue, his wife, which is also interesting and poignant. She describes living with Hitchens throughout his treatment: ‘We were living in two worlds. The old one, which never seemed more beautiful, had not yet vanished; and the new one, about which we knew little except to fear it, had not yet arrived.’ She adds that ‘his artful conversation never ceased.’ Hitchens, known for having the last word in a debate, has his last word.