Mortality

By: Christopher Hitchens

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 2 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

On June 8, 2010, while on a book tour for his best-selling memoir, Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would later write in the first of a series of award-winning columns for Vanity Fair, he suddenly found himself being deported "from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady." Over the next 18 months, until his death in Houston on December 15, 2011, he wrote constantly and brilliantly on politics and culture, astonishing readers with his capacity for superior work even in extremis.

Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, Hitchens adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In this riveting account of his affliction, Hitchens poignantly describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of death.

Mortality is the exemplary story of one man's refusal to cower in the face of the unknown, as well as a searching look at the human predicament. Crisp and vivid, veined throughout with penetrating intelligence, Hitchens's testament is a courageous and lucid work of literature, an affirmation of the dignity and worth of man.

©2012 Christopher Hitchens (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Brilliant as always

Does this man do anything that is not brilliant. Yes he went and dies to young. This is a brilliant book. Thought provoking and deep.

We miss you Hitch

You made this world better by being in it. Thank you so much for your indefatigable energy, wit, and positivity. I strive to be even a little bit like you.

great book

One of the best books I have ever read/ listened to. Gives you a perspective on what is really important.

Exactly what you would expect.

This bittersweet first person account of Hitchens last days portrays the man we’d all came to know through his books, speeches, debates and appearances. As his wife said in the Afterword, “As was true time after time throughout his Life. At the End, Christopher had the last word.”

It would only be fitting that he would leave us with a model for our own final days.

How I Hope to Die

Again Chris awes me in his description of life as just that, with nothing but truth about what he has learned about it.

Hitchens lives on.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This collections of essays is a must for anyone interested in Hitchens. His humanity is on full display as he shares his thoughts, wishes, and fears during his last days.

Very emotional

The book gives great insight into how one feels when they have an illness. The story is warm, funny, and very sad at the same time. I listened to the entire book in one day and then I listened to it again. I will miss his writings alot.

Alive

Where does Mortality rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This was enjoyable in an emotional way. I am a big fan of books that can bring me through a rollercoaster of emotion. This is 4 stars on that ability. I would put this on the upper half of all the great books I have listened to so far, but to give a number ranking would be meaningless to others reading this review unless they know how many of the books here I have actually listened to. I would rather just say it was great.

What did you like best about this story?

Christopher's animated style of writing.

Which scene was your favorite?

The scene in the epilogue painted by his wife coupled with Hitchen's coloring offered shortly before his surmise.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This short, but enjoyable piece was successful in both of those endeavors.

Any additional comments?

If you are like me, and take the length of a book into your final decision as to whether you buy it or not, this is worth the money or the credit even with the short length.

how do atheists die?

Apparently with great equanimity and ironic humor... and eloquence. I found this calming and refreshing and way more intelligent than the religious alternative.

All too short and fleeting

Much shorter than I would have liked, but in the two hours of audio, Hitchens brings to life the struggle of a man in the throws of a losing battle with stage 4 Esophogeal Cancer. This is a particularly nasty cancer that leaves little doubt as to outcome, just a question of how long. Hitchens brings his brand of insight and eloquence to a situation that is in some sense hopeless.

In the course of doing so we will all be able to better understand what thoughts, what emotions have gone through the minds of all those whom we love but have struggled with some form of a serious hopital stay. I don't know, but perhaps this would have shifted the tone and topics of conversation I had with loved ones who didn't make it through. It is incredibly difficult to put yourself in their shoes unless you've been there. Having been there recently and having read this viciously short, eloquent and insightful bit from Hitchens, I don't think I'll approach sickness and hospitals in the same way.

I do wish that there had been some more of self-indulgence and/or self-pity, but he didn't want to revel in those feelings, yet clearly it is something with which all in such situations suffer. A man with such eloquence and insight would have certainly shed new light on this aspect of serious / terminal disease.

Much has been made about the "fact" that Hitchens didn't change his world view when confronted with the end of his life. Unfortunately the brevity and scope of the book I don't believe would have allowed any of these issues to be addressed. There was talk at the end of the larger book he had still hoped to write. He at some point rails against the Randy Pausch approach to passing, but at the end perhaps the book I had hoped to read would have been Hitchens' version of that approach. I didn't want to hear more argument about or criticism of religion and how others choose to live, but I wanted to hear about the beauty and virtue of Hitchens' secular humanism.

Nonetheless, this book will touch you and change the way you empathize with terminal disease / serious hospital stay patients and for that reason alone it is highly recommended.