Suffering from depression and dwelling upon old memories of Paris, the author William Styron recalls a startling conclusion he had: "I would never see Paris again." Never again would he see the land Camus who, he notes, once wrote that the must fundamental question of philosophy is whether life is worth living. "This certitude astonished me and filled me with a new fright, for while thoughts of death had long been common during my siege, blowing through my mind like icy gusts of wind, they were the formless shapes of doom that I suppose are dreamed by people in the grip of any severe affliction" (28). Soon he would need to answer Camus' question.