In thisvolume, which reaffirms the uncompromising brilliance of his mind, Cioranstrips the human condition down to its most basic components, birth and death,suggesting that disaster lies not in the prospect of death but in the fact ofbirth, "that laughable accident." In the lucid, aphoristic style thatcharacterizes his work, Cioran writes of time and death, God and religion,suicide and suffering, and the temptation to silence. Through sharp observationand patient contemplation, Cioran cuts to the heart of the human experience. A love of Cioran creates an urge to press his writing into someone's hand, and is followed by an equal urge to pull it away as poison.-The New Yorker In the company of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard."-Publishers Weekly "No modern writer twists the knife with Cioran's dexterity. . . . His writing . . . is informed with the bitterness of genuine compassion."-Boston Phoenix