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In an engaging series of contending,
amusing, and philosophically poignant
conversations, Willis Barnstone offers a
fresh and touching portrait of Jorge
Luis Borges in his later years. Against
the backdrop of Argentina's Dirty War
and the tragedy of los desaparecidos,
we accompany Borges as he walks the
streets of Buenos Aires, being greeted
by well-wishers. We sit in as he teaches
a class in Old English, at the end of
which students are asked to read aloud
from James, or Whitman, or from Poe's
"visionary and atrocious wonders."
Borges expresses his opinions on the
Malvinas/Falklands war ("a struggle
between two old bald men, fighting over
a comb") and on poets from T. S. Eliot
("a good poet but a stuffy critic") and
Robert Frost ("a fine poet but a
terrible farmer") to Ezra Pound ("I have
one word for Ezra Pound. Fraud).
Readers learn why Borges said of Robert
Lowell, "I might like his poems-but only
if he keeps his trousers on."
Whether expressed in the familiarity
of his own apartment, the intimacy of
adjoining airplane seats, or the
formality of an address to a throng of
academics, Borges's words are captured
here in context. The blindness and the
unique vision for which he is renowned
are evident throughout, both in his
prodigious feats of textual memory and
in his recounting of dreamlike
narratives that later would be
transferred to paper and print.
As Barnstone chronicles events in
Argentina and the United States, Maria
Kodama's role as Borges's reader and
travel companion becomes abundantly
clear. The book contains a moving
portrait of their marriage in
Switzerland, when Borges was on his
deathbed.
"Borges words and spirit shine
through. Barnstone's book is therefore
not only immensely more enjoyable to
read than the majority of other books
about Borges, but more valuable than
them as well. This is a rich portrait of
a passionate but gentle genius."
--Richard Burgin, author of Private
Fame and Conversations with Jorge
Luis Borges |
