The Best of Hitchens, Round 5

We were in Hitchens’s home in Washington. His top-floor apartment,
with a wide view that includes No. 1 Observatory Circle, the Vice-
Presidential residence, is large and handsome: sparely furnished,
with a grand piano, books piled on the floor, a few embassy
invitations on the mantelpiece, and prints and paintings propped
against the walls rather than hung from them; these include an oil
painting of Hitchens and Blue (a dark-haired, darkly dressed woman-a
young Susan Sontag) with coffee, whiskey, and cigarettes on a table
in front of them.