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A review by thisotherbookaccount
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
4.0
When it comes to memoirs written by those on the verge of death — or, as Christopher Hitchens puts it in this book, ‘living dyingly’ — you read one and you have read all of them — with some slight variations between them all, of course. Some will come to terms with God, while others will stand defiant alongside their non-belief. Beyond the questions on faith and belief, however, things are more or less the same.
A similar book on this very topic made the waves last year — When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Look, it’s a good book, but Kalanithi was not a writer. While I enjoyed his clinical insights (he’s a surgeon), his thoughts on life and religion were a little scattered, to say the least. His wife, on the other hand, actually writes much better, evident in the epilogue.
Now, if you want a better-written book on a similar topic, this is the one you want to read. This is Hitchens, after all, the same man who could likely argue his way out of anything if given a chance.
Despite its length, Hitchens packs a lot in there. There are essays on religion, as you would expect, the physical agony of his treatments, as well as alternating sense of hope and hopelessness. Like I said, it is similar to other books of a similar topic, but written head and shoulder better than anybody else.
A similar book on this very topic made the waves last year — When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Look, it’s a good book, but Kalanithi was not a writer. While I enjoyed his clinical insights (he’s a surgeon), his thoughts on life and religion were a little scattered, to say the least. His wife, on the other hand, actually writes much better, evident in the epilogue.
Now, if you want a better-written book on a similar topic, this is the one you want to read. This is Hitchens, after all, the same man who could likely argue his way out of anything if given a chance.
Despite its length, Hitchens packs a lot in there. There are essays on religion, as you would expect, the physical agony of his treatments, as well as alternating sense of hope and hopelessness. Like I said, it is similar to other books of a similar topic, but written head and shoulder better than anybody else.