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