Was he a heavy drinker? That's often what causes esophageal cancer.
Heavy drinker and smoker and his dad had the same cancer.
About his diagnosis, he said something like: “it was so predictable and banal it bores even me.”
Hitch had a great deal of courage and lived life head on. I recently read his last piece, on Nietzsche’s ‘what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger’ line.
It seemed to me a portrait of a real death, one with religion removed. It is valuable for that experience, whether one is religious or not religious. Hitchens left a tremendous body of work and quite a wake behind him.
There’s much to miss, much to admire, a lot to not like, but even in the unlikable Hitch, there’s something to be learned and enjoyed; he made me feel more alive.