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Nicotine
by Gregor Hens, introduction by Will Self
c.2017, Other Press
$16.95 / $22.99 Canada
208 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
You’re always careful to set your butt down in the right
spot.
That’s because you’re quite aware that others would prefer
not to see your butt, or anyone else’s, so you mash yours
down and dispose of it properly before you go back inside
and go to work. That’s the way it goes these days, and in
Nicotine by Gregor Hens, you’ll hear of this and
other things from a former smoker.
One hundred thousand cigarettes.
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That’s how many Gregor Hens estimates he’s smoked in his
lifetime, “and each one of those cigarettes meant something
to me.” He didn’t necessarily enjoy them all – but
each one “served a purpose.” He doesn’t smoke today but
then, “Every cigarette I’ve ever smoked was a good
cigarette.”
Smoking was somewhat of a legacy.
Memories of Hens’ grandfather are wrapped in the smoke of
the cigars he consumed. Hens’ Aunt Anna worked at a German
cigarette factory; as part of her retirement bonus, her
family receives two cartons of cigarettes, delivered by
courier each week for the next half-century, even though she
died years ago. Hens’ father smoked, but quit cold-turkey
one day. Even Hens’ mother smoked; in fact, she was the
first person to hand him a lit cigarette, urging him to
“take a drag on it.”
Without a doubt, Hens, an asthmatic, knew the risks of
smoking. He had to “get [the] addiction under control”
because he knew, statistically, that the more often he
tried, the more likely he was to fail at subsequent attempts
to quit. Once he quit, he missed tobacco so much that he
eagerly walked through a phalanx of smokers, despite being
afraid that it might lead to relapse. He took a cigarette
apart, to determine its power: inside, there was less than a
gram of “tobacco content.” The filter, a “cork-brown”
finely-holed paper mouthpiece, was designed to “breathe and
smoke simultaneously.”
He threw away the wrecked object of his addiction.
Hens says “the old hunger ambushes” him still, but his lungs
have healed from the past and he’s determined to remain a
non-smoker.
“I listened to myself,” he says, “and made a decision.”
Let’s start here: there’s nothing even remotely resembling a
how-to inside “Nicotine.” It doesn’t contain advice or
anything step-by-step, no oughtas or must-do’s. Still, if
you’re struggling with quitting smoking, you might find this
book oddly comforting.
That’s because author Gregor Hens has been there – hundreds
of times, to paraphrase Mark Twain, and he writes with raw
honesty about that with which he wrestles, even now, long
after he gave up his smokes. There’s a touch of humor here,
but most of this book is serious and thoughtful; readers, in
fact, who study the chapter in which Hens bums a smoke and
disassembles it will never forget that emotional battle.
Certainly, this is a book for future quitters and former
smokers, but loved ones who don’t light up will likewise get
plenty out of this book. There’s no overt advice inside
Nicotine but it could help, no butts about it.
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