Lem's new book is the first book reviewed in this book of imaginary book reviews. Lem as not-Lem reviewing not-Lem as Lem, or perhaps Lem1 enclosing Lem2, or the other way about. The title of the book means that it is a book 'about nothing'. In that the books, reviewed do not, and cannot, exist, the reviews cannot exist either. Nor can my own review exist. Let us pretend that it does...

Lem is too constructive a writer to be able to demolish through absurdity. Besides, literature can now take absurdity in its stride. In his review of Mme Solange's Rien du tout, ou la consequence, we meet the anti-roman to end all. Fiction lies, because it is fictitious; therefore let us create a verifaction ofdenials: 'He was not born, consequently he was not named either; on account of this he neither cheated in school nor later got mixed up in politics.' ... You have some idea now of the games Lem is playing, but towards the end they become not literary, which is easy, but philosophico-scientific, which is hard.