Overview

Buddhism, love, Henry James, and the tango are just a few of the topics Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina’s master writer, and extraordinary conversationalist, discusses in the first volume of the remarkable new series, Conversations. The eighty-four-year-old blind man’s wit is unending and results in lively and insightful discussions that configure a loose autobiography of a subtle, teasing mind. Borges’s favorite concepts, such as time and dreaming, are touched upon, but these dialogues are not a true memoir, they are unrestricted conversations about life at present.  The Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, contributed immensely to twentieth-century literature, and more specifically to the genres of magical realism and fantasy. As he progressively lost his sight—he became completely blind by the age of fifty-five—the darkness behind his eyelids held enchanting imagery that translated into rich symbolism in his work.  The inner workings of his curious mind are seen vividly in his conversations with Ferrari, and there’s not a subject on which he doesn’t cast surprising new light. As in his tale “The Other,” where two Borgeses meet up on a bench beside the River Charles, this is a dialogue between a young poet and the elder teller of tales where all experience floats in a miracle that defies linear time.

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Reviews

""The ideas and reflections and conjectures documented in these pages are a kind of last word from one of literature's true sages. . . . As a master lecturer and raconteur, Borges invariably shapes his narrative arcs in the form of parabolae rather than hyperbolae, plotting how to curve back as he brilliantly creates each looping outward thread. . . . In these dialogues--as in any genre he attempted--the fundamental unfairness of his outrageous talent is almost always a wonder and a delight.""-- ""Rain Taxi"" ""The richness of this publication lies with Borges' lengthy reflections on Argentine literature and culture. . . . There is much in these discussions that I have not found in other publications, and there are some fascinating moments, such as his recollection of meeting Quiroga. . . . This is the first volume of two, and the second volume has an equally tantalizing offering of discussions in the contents.""-- ""Bulletin of Spanish Studies"" ""Conversations cannot and must not be missed by all lovers of Borges and readers of literature. The three beautifully produced books also feel like collector's items. . . . The existence of these three volumes of Conversations with Borges will perhaps also calm the storms on Jupiter, change the colours of the hexagonal cloud formation on Saturn's North Pole, spark a fresh burst of high energy gamma rays from the galactic centre and make our world a bit more imaginative, wondrous, wiser and happier.""-- ""Scroll India""

The ideas and reflections and conjectures documented in these pages are a kind of last word from one of literature's true sages. . . . As a master lecturer and raconteur, Borges invariably shapes his narrative arcs in the form of parabolae rather than hyperbolae, plotting how to curve back as he brilliantly creates each looping outward thread. . . . In these dialogues--as in any genre he attempted--the fundamental unfairness of his outrageous talent is almost always a wonder and a delight. --Rain Taxi The richness of this publication lies with Borges' lengthy reflections on Argentine literature and culture. . . . There is much in these discussions that I have not found in other publications, and there are some fascinating moments, such as his recollection of meeting Quiroga. . . . This is the first volume of two, and the second volume has an equally tantalizing offering of discussions in the contents. --Bulletin of Spanish Studies

Author Information

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentine writer, poet and philosopher, is best known for his books Ficciones and The Aleph. Osvaldo Ferrari is a poet, essayist and university professor. Jason Wilson is emeritus professor of Latin American literature at the University College London. He is the author of Octavio Paz: A Study of His Poetics, An A-Z of Modern Latin American Literature in English Translation, and Buenos Aires: A Cultural and Literary Companion.

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