Anathemas and Admirations

In this collection of essays and epigrams, E.M. Cioran gives us portraits and evaluationswhich he calls 'admirations'of Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the poet Paul Valery, and Mircea Eliade, among others. In alternating sections of aphorismshis 'anathemas'he delivers insights on such topics as solitude, flattery, vanity, friendship, insomnia, music, mortality, God, and the lure of disillusion.