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