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Summary: odd translations of amazing ideas
Review: as i don't read spanish i can't comment on hurley's work, but i'm still grateful to have these works in english, even if they may have been flawed in the process.between the fantastic worlds of chinese pirates, infinte books, mirrors, single-sided objects and the ever present compasses are tender little pieces of romance and worry, and even a lovecraft story written with great affection and fun. i still worry about the world being overcome by tlon. or has it already happened?
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Summary: Master of Time: Borges and I
Review: At the end of Shakespeare's Memory the character Hermann Sorgel unbinds the spell that has enslaved him within a labyrinth of memories, saying: "Simply the thing I am shall make me live." This enigmatic statement, haiku like in its density, suddenly awakens us to that mystery which is time - or, should we say presence? In one of his seminal essays The Wall and the Books Borges tells us: "Music, states of happiness, mythology, faces worn by time, certain twilights and certain places, all want to tell us something, or have told us something we shouldn't have lost, or are about to tell us something; that imminence of a revelation as yet unproduced is perhaps, the aesthetic fact." Reading and rereading Borges over the past several years has sparked my awareness of this truth over and over. And with this new translation we are once again taken into the magic stream of a master...
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Summary: Unified Collection of Great Works
Review: Borges is one of the great writers of this century. Even in translation, his best work is magical in quality. This is the first unified collection of his fictions. All his great fiction pieces are collected in one volume and with an effort at a uniform style in translation. This is an immensely enjoyable and rewarding book. While some may argue with specifics of the translator's efforts, the whole achievement is impressive. English language readers owe the publisher a real debt of gratitude for bringing out this collection.
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Summary: If Not badly translated, surely differently so.
Review: To be finally faced with this monumental work cannot be anything but a joy and privledge to anyone who reveres the work of Jorge Luis Borges. To one whose English contact with his work has been represented by others than Andrew Hurley however, his work can be abruptly disconcerting. Consider and compare one spare example: Read side by side from "The Book Of Sand", the two versions of "The Other", both by Andrew Hurley and that of Norman Thomas Di Giovanni, and you may recall the fable of the blind men describing an elephant; each by feeling a different part of the anatomy. They tell the identical tale, but the resultant effect is completely dipolar. Di Giovanni recreates for us in English, the essential magical realism with which Borges spoke, while retaining the essence and cadence that fill this short tale with it's dreamlike structure. It is carefully and lovingly crafted, with respect and methodic attention to the original Spanish cadre. The hypnotic illusion it creates puts the reader in it's spell fully, from the first sentence. Hurley's version, relies soley upon his perception of how best to explain to the reader, what it is he thinks the author had in mind.. It is as if though he sought to put the lines onto paper as quickly as possible, while recreating a contemporary English version of Borges plan. For the reader new to Borges' majestic presence, there is an unwarranted intrusion into the translation concept, as if the project was rushed to completion. How long and hard Hurley has worked on this enormous procect deserves utmost admiration. How new readers of Borges will interpret what they read is troubling, in comparison to those who have come before him.
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Summary: Borges... what else can I say?
Review: "Ficciones"=Borges. This book shows us what Borges really is: a great writer (maybe the greater, why not?). It contains a lot of wonderful sories like "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan", "Funes el memorioso", "Las ruinas circulares" and maybe the best detective's storie ever written: "La muerte y la brújula". Of course it has more tales, but I think these are the best ones, and if you consider yourself a reader, you MUST read this ones. Borges... whate else???? No hay nadie como Borges.
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Summary: A remarkable writer.
Review: Borges was a truly remarkable, wonderful writer. Although these stories betray the authors obsession with deep philosphical questions, they are always gracefully written and entertaining. In fact, the fun of the stories seems (to this reader) to make the philosphical questions all the sharper and more urgent. It has been mentioned that Borges never received the Nobel Prize. Although Borges certainly deserved it, in an odd way this oversight puts him in appropriate company, as James Joyce was also passed over by the Nobel Prize committee. Many Nobel Literature Lauereates, and most of the "committed" left-wing writers favored by the Prize committee in recent years, will be rememberd for winning the Nobel Prize. James Joyce and Jorge Luis Borges will be remembered as the most imaginative and innovative writers of the 20th century, and as two of the centuries greatest writers.
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Summary: No peace for Borges
Review: Es probable que lo que escriba (segun la interpretación del quien en este momento este leyendo estas palabras)se pierda en alguna red irrecuperable, además el hecho de que este escrito en español, lo desprestigia... no discutiré esa problemática... ¡qué sobervia! Borges no tiene identidad y eso atrae a las personas que la buscan Nada más
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Summary: Sheer joy to have all of Borges' fiction in one volume!
Review: I discovered Borges early in his English translations in the 60s, and couldn't get enough. His minimalism is deceptively simple-looking, but hard to do for me as a writer; his preoccupation with time and existence fascinates and disturbs; and his often-overlooked attention to epistomology is a continuing source of his pawky humor. Borges is endlessly readable, again and again, and I LOVE having all his "fictions" in one volume!
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Summary: Great men are rarely appreciated in their own countries.
Review: The review dated May 18, 1999 from Buenos Aires clearly is an example of the adage that great men are rarely appreciated in their own countries.
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Summary: The aleph!
Review: It's wonderful to have a volume that is so much closer to being "complete" than other English translations, however, I have to echo the reservations of the reader/reviewer who suggested purchasing Irby's translation first, then using this volume to supplement one's Borges collection. Perhaps, as one of Irby's ex-students at Princeton, I'm biased by his kindness as a teacher, but I somehow feel that his translation captures the rhythym, style, and polish of Borges' voice far better than this new collection does. I still give this volume 5 stars, though, since it is lovely to have so many of Borges' works collected in one book.
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