Cigarettes inspired German author and translator Gregor Hens to write the unconventional and intriguing meditation Nicotine. He examines his life as a smoker and non-smoker many times over. "I've smoked well over a hundred thousand cigarettes... and each one of those cigarettes meant something to me.... Every cigarette that I've ever smoked served a purpose," he tells us as he delves into his past and delivers an entertaining book that is part memoir, part essay and part research summary into the "all-pervading nature" of addiction.
Hens recounts how and when smoking took root in his life: he was six years old when his mother gave him a lit cigarette to ignite the fuse on a bottle rocket one New Year's Eve. He supplements his personal anecdotes by sharing cultural customs related to smoking, especially during his formative years in the 1970s and 1980s. With detailed, fluid and sensual prose, he weaves tidbits of history throughout, including Adolf Hitler's anti-smoking stance and Mark Twain's wit on the subject.
At the time of writing Nicotine, Hens was no longer a smoker. But he explains that he wrote it in order to dissect his addiction and analyze how smoking colored distinct eras of his life and served as inspiration for his creativity. Smoking and cigarettes might not be good for the health of the body, but Hens's glimpse through the prism of addiction offers an enriching and enlightening account that benefits the mind and the soul. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines