...... this is a text that affords, incites and rewards a rereading, not only because it deals with (the only) ultimate issues-mortality, preeminently, -then truth, love, friendship, art, and (the very possibility) of solitude...but also by way of its fascinating and immensely variegated style-at once personal, austere, nostalgic, trenchantly and intensely insightful, -by turns (especially self-) critical, arrogant, scholarly, analytical, often lyrical and musical, full of haunting refrains and poetic and philosophical citation, and culminating symphonically with some remarkable poetry -in short Dostoevskian .........

…… this is a text that affords, incites and rewards a rereading, not only because it deals with (the only) ultimate issues—mortality, preeminently, —then truth, love, friendship, art, and (the very possibility) of solitude…but also by way of its fascinating and immensely variegated style—at once personal, austere, nostalgic, trenchantly and intensely insightful, —by turns (especially self-) critical, arrogant, scholarly, analytical, often lyrical and musical, full of haunting refrains and poetic and philosophical citation, and culminating symphonically with some remarkable poetry —in short Dostoevskian ………

…… this is a text that affords, incites and rewards a rereading, not only because it deals with (the only) ultimate issues—mortality, preeminently, —then truth, love, friendship, art, and (the very possibility) of solitude…but also by way of its fascinating and immensely variegated style—at once personal, austere, nostalgic, trenchantly and intensely insightful, —by turns (especially self-) critical, arrogant, scholarly, analytical, often lyrical and musical, full of haunting refrains and poetic and philosophical citation, and culminating symphonically with some remarkable poetry —in short Dostoevskian ………