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