Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges

Rating: ★★★★★
12/05/14


Reading Borges is always a challenge. When you read his stories, it seems you are reading everyone else's. There is a lot of references in his work, and if you want to truly (kind of) understand it (or begin to), you have to do a little research. He ends up being an invaluable teacher.

Labyrinths, mirrors, libraries, dreams, fantasy, religion, philosophy, epistemology. My love for philosophical literature began with this author.

My all-time favorite story is “Las Ruinas Circulares”; the power of thoughts.

“Con alivio, con humillación, con terror, comprendió que él también era una apariencia, que otro estaba soñándolo.”

What a beautiful line to end a story. (I prefer quoting Borges in his own language, my language. I do the same with English-speaking writers. Being able to read JLB in Spanish is a privilege.)

"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is another jewel with a line I never forgot:

(…) los espejos y la cópula son abominables, porque multiplican el número de los hombres. 

I also liked “La lotería de Babilonia”, “El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan”, “Funes el memorioso”, “La biblioteca de Babel” (brilliant). And... I should stop here. I loved every piece of amazing and confusing literature this guy wrote. So, this is a useless, too subjective review because I absolutely love Borges' writing. Despite the fact he makes me feel plain stupid, most of the times.

JLB and his blindness, nice oxymoron. He saw things beyond the ordinary human eye. He created universes, troubled authors, fake books, never-ending labyrinths and a unique way of writing about all that and more.
He is one of those great writers that makes you feel like everything has already been written.

* Photo credit: Book cover via Goodreads.