Blanchot, Friendship

Emerging from obscurity, Blanchot is now regarded as one of the great 20th-century critics, but as The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French acknowledges, "It is not entirely clear why this change has come about." Though he displays vast erudition, readers anticipating observations on friendship reminiscent of Montaigne's famous essay at the end of Book 3 of Essais will be disappointed in these rambling, disjointed essays. Instead, Blanchot regales them with discussions of every topic imaginable, from the enigmatic paintings in the caves of Lascaux to the atomic era. Occasionally, he does offer brief, valuable insights on writers like Franz Kafka or Stephane Mallarme, who, like Blanchot, viewed writing as a total commitment carrying tremendous risks.

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