[on
Mihail Sebastian's "Journal 1935-1944: The Fascist Years", first published in 1996] An extraordinary testimonial... The sickening coziness of artistic and political worlds in fascist Romania is caught in the very process of 'rhinocerization,' to use
Eugène Ionesco's famous coinage... Sebastian's Journal is an uncomfortable and convincing reminder that the Romanian, indeed European, intellectual milieu still has something morally rotten at its core. This book rises from the debris of pre-war verbiage like a man from a pile of corpses.
