"Forms in the Abyss" is a carefully written, complex book that seeks to essentially reconcile and "bridge" the work of Sartre and Derrida. Steve Martinot argues that Sartre set out a significant set of ethical precepts for living in - and of - the world, and Derrida threw into question the process by which one can find a truly ethical way of living. By demonstrating that there is a bridge between these two thinkers, and that one can use the critical tools provided by Derrida to arrive at Sartre's conclusions about ethics, Martinot contributes a new way of thinking about critical and social theory, and even more importantly, adds a new ethical and political imperative to post-modern thought that many critics have often found missing in the works of people like Derrida. A groundbreaking effort to find the "common language" between two of the most important philosophical thinkers of the twentieth century, "Forms in the Abyss" promises to be one of the most significant contribution to our critical understanding of western thought in recent memory.