Excerpt from "Portrait of M" by Matei Calinescu.

"I regard this portrait of M as a kind of "galaxy." It starts with his death and is virtually boundless. I do not know how it could be covered within the confines of one volume, but it will have to come to an end. This will doubtless be an arbitrary end, like any other ending: It may come as a result of an accident, out of exhaustion, or because some passage or word will appear to me as a convenient, suggestive, symbolic conclusion. It may, however, end abruptly, in a moment devoid of any special significance. A galaxy of fragments, memories, reflections, anecdotes and reading notes (always connected to him), of older and newer diary entries written when he was still alive, comments on the margin of diary entries, comments on comments, in random order, generally going counterclockwise, but not necessarily so. The only certitude is the fact that I start with the end, but the beginning-what is the beginning?-I am certain I will never reach the true beginning. The only thing one can say about the beginning is that it is a mystery more profound than the end.

A lengthier excerpt can be read online at Words Without Borders. [Credit for the photo goes to the talented Mihaela Gavrilean.]