One of my book club choices this year was Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. I have no idea why but I’ve been putting off Jorge Luis Borges for a long time. I felt as if I could not understand any of his books. I’m still not sure if Ficciones was a good start, but I can say, what I’ve been feeling was right all along.
I don’t know if I’m not good with stories or because I’m not used to Borges’s unique style, but I’ve only enjoyed one of those stories. I wonder if I’m not mature enough for Borges? Or will I ever enjoy his writing? I think I have to love Borges. He is one of the rare authors I’ve ever quoted the most and think of when I boast of being a reader.
I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books.
Jorge Luis Borges
Unlike me, if you like stories and have not yet read Jorge Luis Borges, I suggest you at least read one of his books. As you can see from the quotes, he is fantastic.
Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read.
Jorge Luis Borges
About the book: Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges was one of those very rare creators who changed the face of an art form. So in his case, the short story. His work however has been paid the ultimate honour of being. Appropriated and imitated by innumerable writers on every continent of the world.
The seventeen brief masterpieces of FICCIONES explode the boundaries of genre. Offering up labyrinthine libraries, a fictional encyclopedia entry that however spawns an entire world. A review of a nonexistent so writer’s attempt to re-create Don Quixote word for word. A man with the disabling inability to forget anything he has ever experienced, and other metaphysical puzzles. But the true measure of Borges’s greatness lies in the fact that his fictions. Elaborately paradoxical, postmodern, and intellectually delicious as they are. Managed to return the short story to the realm of the fabulous and the uncanny however from which. As parable and fairy tale, it originally came.
About the author:
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo KBE was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator. And a key figure in Spanish-language and universal literature.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
