"This delightful book provides readers a key to more than one secret room of Borges's magical worlds."-Mahmoud Darwish
"Alberto Manguel is to reading what Casanova was to sex."-Scotland on Sunday
"His stories about Borges . . . [are] wrapped in luminous poetry."-The Toronto Star
Winner of the 2003 Prix du livre en Poitou-Charentes.
In 1964, in Buenos Aires, a blind writer in his sixties approached a sixteen-year-old bookstore clerk and asked if he would be interested in a part-time job reading aloud. The writer was Jorge Luis Borges, one of the world's finest literary minds; the boy was Alberto Manguel, who was later to become an internationally acclaimed author and bibliophile.
Manguel's reflections are part memoir, part biography, and all celebration of the living quality of literature. A moving portrait of an enigmatic genius, replete with deep insight into Borges and the writers he most admired.
A Loving Memoir About a Great Writer Anyone who loves Borges (as I do) should read this slim (76 pages) volume. Alberto Maguel, himself from Borges's beloved Buenos Aires and a distinguished author (cf. especially his A History of Reading) was sixteen and working in a bookstore when a dignified sixtyish blind man introduced himself to him: it was Borges, already a legend in his homeland. Borges asked him if he'd be interested in coming to his apartment some nights and reading to him. For the next four years, Manguel read books while Borges listened -sometimes Borges's longtime favorites, Kipling and Stevenson. Borges also talked, about anything bookish. Manguel listened ... and remembered, even without notes. ("I didn't take notes because during those evenings I felt too contented.") "For Borges," writes Manguel, "the core of reality lay in books : reading books, writing books, talking about books." And what conversations they were, filled with wondrous apercus about literature and ranging across the world's literature from ancient epics to modern-day detective stories. Borges loved detective stories. Think of his enigmatic story, "Death and the Compass," which is a Kabbalistic detective story, if such a thing can exist). Borges is arguably one of the most influential modernist writers in the past century, as fascinating a personality as a writer. Manguel does us a service by bringing him to life once more.
Short But Sweet This is a book you can easily devour in one sitting (about an hour and a half should do it), especially if you know and love the writings of Jorge Luis Borges the way I do. The author, Alberto Manguel, was a bookstore clerk that Borges enlisted to read out loud to him, being himself blind. For several years beginning in 1964, Manguel showed up at Borges's apartment at Maipú 994 regularly for several years and read the books chosen by the author. When Borges composed poetry, he would dictate line by line, including the punctuation, to Manguel, who transcribed it--together with corrections--until it was ready to be submitted.
Apparently, Borges used several people in this role. Fortunately, Manguel grew up to be an award-winning writer in his own right. This makes WITH BORGES particularly valuable to people such as myself for the acuity of Manguel's insights.
Ever since I first read his collection LABYRINTHS in 1969, Borges has been one of the seminal influences in my life. I have sought out the books and authors he mentions, leading me to many of the world's great writers, poets, and philosophers. And the process is still unfolding, as I follow in the direction where THOSE books lead.
One discovery I made from reading this book was that Borges had written two poems based on Albrecht Dürer's famous engraving "Knight, Death, and Devil"--a work I have known and loved for years even before I made the acquaintance of Borges. I found the poem in my library and marvelled that I hadn't known about it. (Manguel mentions that engraving as the sole work of art hanging on Borges's bedroom wall.)
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
