Poetry. What can one say of Pinget, as he comes through in Miss Wright's loving translations, except that he conveys, amid much wilful murk, an impression of integrity, intelligence and power? -- John Updike. Having translated thirteen earlier works by Pinget, Barbara Wright has much to say about this important personage of contemporary French letters, and appends a useful afterword to this volume: TRACES OF INK is Robert Pinget's last published book. It came out in the spring of 1997, and was followed that summer by a colloquium in Tours celebrating every aspect of his work; this was a happy, successful occasion which Pinget much enjoyed. Only a month later, though, he had a stroke and died. It is fitting that Pinget's last work is written in a notebook form, his signature genre despite his writing of both novels and plays. Pinget helps us to stay alive and sustain our own enquiry -- Barbara Wright, (Afterword).