Christopher Hitchens: Mortality

[SFG75]

Finished this one a month ago and really liked it. While he was very controversial, I enjoyed his wit and writing style concerning his cancer treatment and impending death. My favorite lines?

I sympathize afresh with the mighty Voltaire, who, when badgered on his deathbed and urged to renounce the devil, murmured that this was no time to be making enemies.

and

In whatever kind of a "race" life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.

This is not a topic that lot of people can write about in such a refreshing and uplifting manner, even when facing extinction and the pain that precedes it. The descriptions of his medical procedures and change that his voice and body went through was very sad of course, a description of a process having witnessed a few times in my life on the part of others. A fitting book for someone who spoke with candor and all humility about what he cared about, quite appropriate that he did so concerning the end of his own journey.