Mortality--Christopher Hitchens

The link below is to a terrific review of Christopher Hitchens last book, "Mortality". This appeared in today's Wall Street Journal. Hitchens, a prolific writer and critic, died last December at age 62 of esophageal cancer. All of his writing is important because he was one of our sharpest, smartest social critics and, because he kept writing all the way through his cancer to hours before his death.

As Henry Allen writes here, Hitchens was  a critic of cancer and of "battling cancer". "People don't have cancer: They are reported to be battling cancer--You don't hear that about long-term sufferers from heart disease or kidney failure." (I suspect it's because we still, on some level, blame people for those illnesses.)

Here's the review. Take a look. The book is available now.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444812704577605110400199868.html