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This week in the New York Times Book Review, Christopher Buckley reviews “Mortality†by Christopher Hitchens, a slender book that collects the essays Mr. Hitchens wrote after being stricken with esophageal cancer. Mr. Buckley writes:
The first seven chapters are, like virtually everything he wrote over his long, distinguished career, diamond-hard and brilliant. An eighth and final chapter consists, as the publisher's note informs us, of unfinished “fragmentary jottings†that he wrote in his terminal days in the critical-care unit of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. They're vivid, heart-wrenching and haunting - messages in a bottle tossed from the deck of a sinking ship as its captain, reeling in agony and fighting through the fog of morphine, stru ggles to keep his engines going.
On this week's podcast, Mr. Buckley talks about “Mortalityâ€; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; Barry Gewen discusses George Orwell's diaries; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
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