Just days after the passing away of the great writer Octavian Paler, Daniel Cristea-Enache’s latest volume, Conversations with Octavian Paler was published at Corinth Publishing House. The reviewer’s novel is an atypical conversation because the author, of profound respect for Paler, let him unburden his soul, shed his replies at the addressed questions, in his own manner: by the grave, honestly and thoroughly touch of pen to the paper.
The book
The book is a conversation between generations, from November, 2005, when Octavian Paler had just been awarded the Opera Omnia of the Writers Union, to April, 2007, the last recorded day being the 29th of April, just days before the writer's passing away. Writing to the proximity of death, Paler thought about the search for life’s meaning and the maturity of old age, as in the statement: “Until old age we don’t have time to ask what is the meaning of life. We are too busy to live. At the old age we have time (even too much!) to do it, but then we face a painful discovery: life has meaning only if you’re not looking for it!” But this statement does not fade his love for life itself: “To love too much life is equal to no longer stand it.”