tonkatsu

Astounding in every way... One of the finest collections of short stories in existence! I first read most of these stories back in 1987 in an anthology called *Labyrinths* that was a selection of material from various Borges' books. Most of the stories that appear in *Fictions* also appear in *Labyrinths* but there are several good ones that don't, including the essay-stories 'The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim' and 'A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain', and the gauncho tales 'The End' and 'The South' (apparently Borges' favourite among his own stories)... Some of these stories I have now read three times. That's extremely unusual for me. Although I appreciate the excellence of 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius' I'm not entirely convinced that it's Borges' best story (as so many people claim) and I even wonder how many readers (i.e. potential fans) have been dissuaded from reading further after struggling with that particular tale right at the beginning of the volume... It reads like an entirely serious metaphysical essay, playful with its concepts, but lacking a certain momentum that the best Borges' stories have in abundance. Much better are 'The Library of Babel', 'Death and the Compass', 'Funes, His Memory', 'The Lottery in Babylon', 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote' and (best of all in my view) 'The Circular Ruins'. 'The Circular Ruins' was the very first Borges story I ever read, maybe as long ago as 1983 or 1984, and back then I wasn't so enthralled. This is the third time I've read it. Oddly I like it more and more each time!

2023-06-22 11:21