I love the writing of Jorge Luis Borges. Back in the early days of this blog, I was so deeply affected by reading his collection of ‘fictions’ that I broke my optimistic vow of reviewing every book I read. It seemed impossible to review a book so vast and varied—it would be like trying to catalogue the contents of one… Read More
Posts tagged borges
Is It a Good Idea to Frustrate Your Readers’ Expectations?
I was interviewed recently for a podcast by book blogger Charlie Place, and her perceptive questions got me thinking about my writing. In particular, why do I deliberately frustrate readers’ expectations in my novels? You can listen to the podcast on Charlie’s site if you so desire. Or you can listen below: Now that I’ve had some extra time to… Read More
Borges marathon, part 1: The Cruel Redeemer Lazarus Morell
So I had this great idea to write a separate review for every short story every written by the master of short stories (or short fictions as they’re often called, for reasons that will become apparent), Jorge Luis Borges. I’m not sure how great this great idea is, but I’ll get started anyway. I’m going to move chronologically, using the… Read More
“Collected Fictions” by Jorge Luis Borges
With this book, I have to admit defeat, or at least a change of plan. I wanted to review every book I read on this site, but I can’t review this. How to reduce the life work of one of the most brilliant writers of the 20th century to a single blog post? It can’t be done. If I had… Read More