Carol Blue

1 Posts Back Home

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

“A wit, a charmer, a trouble-maker, and a dear devoted friend … a man of insatiable appetities – for cigarettes, for scotch, for company, for great writing, and, above all, for conversation.”

 This is the portrait of Christopher Hitchens as sketched by his close friend, Graydon Carter, in the Forword to Hitchens’ last book, Mortality, It goes part of the way to articulating why the essayist, author and orator, became one of the most popular, if contentious, literary figures of our modern times. And why a lucky few so cherished invitations to one of his legendary dinners “at a table crammed with ambassadors, hacks, political dissidents, university students…when he would rise to give a toast that could go on for a stirring, spellbinding, hysterically funny 20 minutes of poetry and limerick reciting, a call to arms for a cause and joke: ‘How good it is to be us’.”

Mortality is a collection of seven essays Hitchens wrote in the period between he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and his death in December 2011. They are an eloquent, wry, shrewd observation about the process of death and the “inevitable awkwardness in diplomatic relations between Tumortown and it neighbours.” 

Navigate
Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: