Wotmania Review of BAF

3 comments on “Wotmania Review of BAF

  1. Larry says:

    Glad you enjoyed my review, Jeff, as I couldn’t help but think at times as I was writing it that there was much that I was missing. But I will say here (since the review was not exactly the proper place for it) that LaSalle’s story had me wondering until the end about Borges and a possible fear of mirrors, especially since I just started reading this mammoth 1663 page edition (in Spanish, don’t know if/when it’ll be released in English) of Borges’ close friend Adolfo Bioy Casares’ diary mentions of Borges and his habits. I guess it’s a good thing when the writer has the reader fooled until the end, no?

  2. Jeff VanderMeer says:

    Yeah–me, too, on the Borges. I think Borges might’ve gotten a chuckle out of that. Thanks again for the review. As a start-up in our first year, we really appreciate it.

    So is the Casares good? I hate the fact I’m just not that adept with languages.

    jeff

  3. Larry says:

    You’re welcome. As for the Bioy Casares diary, it’s tantalizing at times, with entries such as “Borges and I worked on Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi (a sort of detective story collection, except the sleuth is a prisoner who stays behind bars the entire time),” although occasionally there are comments about how Borges would cut down someone he didn’t like with some witty retort.

    As for Bioy Casares as a writer, he is often sadly overlooked since he co-wrote so many stories with Borges from the 1930s through the 1970s. Many of these co-written stories have been translated into English, such as the above-mentioned “policials” as well as the tongue-in-cheek Chronicles of H. Bustos Domencq. I believe most of these are out-of-print but easily found at Amazon or other online sellers. And I cannot recommend Bioy Casares’ solo effort, The Invention of Morel, high enough. It’s a shame he doesn’t get more recognition here in the U.S., as he too had some interesting ideas on how to use narrative techniques to create some wonderful stories. But I guess it’s a small consolation that he’s at least available in English translation.

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