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smuds2's review
Had to return to the library, and I'm sure I'll see more of borge's short stories eventually.
avinsh10's review
4.0
Aleph and Other Stories is my 1st Borges book translated by Norman T. di Giovanni. I've read Labyrinths previously and was expecting a series of stories related to labyrinths. Instead, this book introduced me to other genres Borges explored.
The "Aleph" as suggested in the 1st story says "is a point in space that contains all other points". This book, similarly is a point in space that contains stories from different time & genres Borges exercised. This is both its strongest asset and Achilles' heel. By exploring multiple genres the book can reach out to a wider audience while leaving some audience wanting more.
You can find a story by story basis rating given below:
The Aleph(1945)-Mysticism(5 Stars)
Streetcorner Man(1933)-Crime(3.5 Stars)
The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim(1935)-Mysticism(5 Stars)
The Circular Ruins(1940)-Mysticism(5 Stars)
Death and the Compass(1942)-Labyrinth(4.5 Stars)
The Life of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz(1944)-Crime(3 Stars)
The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths(1946)-Labyrinth(5 Stars)
The Dead Man(1946)-Crime(3.5 Stars)
The Other Death(1948)-Crime/Unreliable Narrator(3.5 Stars)
Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth(1949)-Labyrinth(5 Stars)
The Man on the Threshold(1952)-Crime(4 Stars)
The Challenge(1952)-Crime(4 Stars)
The Captive(1956)-Psychological(4.5 Stars)
Borges and Myself(1956)-Psychological(5 Stars)
The Maker(1958)-Introspective(4 Stars)
The Intruder(1966)-Crime(4 Stars)
The Immortals(1966)-Sci-Fi/Parody(4 Stars)
The Meeting(1969)-Crime(4 Stars)
Pedro Salvadores(1969)-Crime/Psychological(4.5 Stars)
Rosendo's Tale(1969)-Crime(4 Stars)
The commentary at the end of the book is an excellent addition to this book. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the autobiography but I would recommend this book for people interested in studying the evolution of his writing style.
The "Aleph" as suggested in the 1st story says "is a point in space that contains all other points". This book, similarly is a point in space that contains stories from different time & genres Borges exercised. This is both its strongest asset and Achilles' heel. By exploring multiple genres the book can reach out to a wider audience while leaving some audience wanting more.
You can find a story by story basis rating given below:
The Aleph(1945)-Mysticism(5 Stars)
Streetcorner Man(1933)-Crime(3.5 Stars)
The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim(1935)-Mysticism(5 Stars)
The Circular Ruins(1940)-Mysticism(5 Stars)
Death and the Compass(1942)-Labyrinth(4.5 Stars)
The Life of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz(1944)-Crime(3 Stars)
The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths(1946)-Labyrinth(5 Stars)
The Dead Man(1946)-Crime(3.5 Stars)
The Other Death(1948)-Crime/Unreliable Narrator(3.5 Stars)
Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth(1949)-Labyrinth(5 Stars)
The Man on the Threshold(1952)-Crime(4 Stars)
The Challenge(1952)-Crime(4 Stars)
The Captive(1956)-Psychological(4.5 Stars)
Borges and Myself(1956)-Psychological(5 Stars)
The Maker(1958)-Introspective(4 Stars)
The Intruder(1966)-Crime(4 Stars)
The Immortals(1966)-Sci-Fi/Parody(4 Stars)
The Meeting(1969)-Crime(4 Stars)
Pedro Salvadores(1969)-Crime/Psychological(4.5 Stars)
Rosendo's Tale(1969)-Crime(4 Stars)
The commentary at the end of the book is an excellent addition to this book. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the autobiography but I would recommend this book for people interested in studying the evolution of his writing style.
steve_brinson's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I've always liked Jorge Luis Borges, and indeed considered him one of my favorite authors, but also kind of underestimated him as a thinker - to me, a lot of his stories can be summed up as "hey, what if there was a [map that was the size of the territory it was mapping], wouldn't that be wack", and were it not for his gifts for a) coming up with genuinely fascinating ideas of that nature and b) figuring out interesting and genuinely thoughtful implications without overstaying his welcome. The Aleph and Other Stories doesn't really disprove this impression, but it does make clear that aside from those stories (which are his best-remembered ones, and which include the title story of this collection), he has other things going on.
One example is Death and the Compass, probably his most famous non-conceptual story. The first five-sixths of it read like somewhere between a Sherlock Holmes pastiche and Borges' take on Criminal Minds - the detective Erik Lönnrot investigates a murder which appears at face value to be a burglary gone wrong but which Lönnrot deduces to be some kind of Jewish ritual murder, is vindicated when two more dead bodies turn up, and figures out that the murderers made the third murder look like the last but that there will be a fourth -and then it turns out that the first murder genuinely was a burglary gone wrong and only looked like a ritual by coincidence and that the criminal mastermind behind the first murder concocted the next two to trap Lönnrot. I'm an easy mark when it comes to this kind of thing, but it at least seems like a very good deconstruction of that kind of detective or the sort of criminal mastermind who opposes them, in love with patterns and clever references for no good reason, and a very effective use of Borges' own tendencies as a writer, because by reputation he is exactly the sort of writer who would write that kind of story.
One reason so many of his stories are forgotten is that they don't lend themselves to that sort of concisely-describable idea, but another reason is that they are his most universal; he also has a lot of stories that work well in the context of Argentine history or culture, in particular the gaucho era and his stories about knife fights, but assume a level of familiarity with the subject that most Anglophone readers, including myself, just don't have. A lot of those stories also have more lowbrow subject matter (cf. the knife fights), but Borges doesn't really write them that way; The Meeting, in which it is heavily implied that two knives essentially take over a pair of poker players to carry forward a fight they were once involved in, treats its subject matter with not much less seriousness than any other concept in his work, though the nature of knife-fighting creates a somewhat more linear plot than his other conceptual stories.
Another standout is The Other Death (also titled The Redemption) - I do not know how to discuss its nonlinear narrative without just summarizing it, so I will simply say that it highlights a degree of character work that is certainly present in a lot of Borges' other stories but not really foregrounded in the same way.
One example is Death and the Compass, probably his most famous non-conceptual story. The first five-sixths of it read like somewhere between a Sherlock Holmes pastiche and Borges' take on Criminal Minds - the detective Erik Lönnrot investigates a murder which appears at face value to be a burglary gone wrong but which Lönnrot deduces to be some kind of Jewish ritual murder, is vindicated when two more dead bodies turn up, and figures out that the murderers made the third murder look like the last but that there will be a fourth -
One reason so many of his stories are forgotten is that they don't lend themselves to that sort of concisely-describable idea, but another reason is that they are his most universal; he also has a lot of stories that work well in the context of Argentine history or culture, in particular the gaucho era and his stories about knife fights, but assume a level of familiarity with the subject that most Anglophone readers, including myself, just don't have. A lot of those stories also have more lowbrow subject matter (cf. the knife fights), but Borges doesn't really write them that way; The Meeting, in which it is heavily implied that two knives essentially take over a pair of poker players to carry forward a fight they were once involved in, treats its subject matter with not much less seriousness than any other concept in his work, though the nature of knife-fighting creates a somewhat more linear plot than his other conceptual stories.
Another standout is The Other Death (also titled The Redemption) - I do not know how to discuss its nonlinear narrative without just summarizing it, so I will simply say that it highlights a degree of character work that is certainly present in a lot of Borges' other stories but not really foregrounded in the same way.
thesubmariner's review
4.0
The clear standout is The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths. The Aleph, Death and the compass, The Captive and The Meeting are also memorable.
jgwc54e5's review
4.0
Some really interesting stories about immortality, Infinity, masculinity, reality and lots of labyrinths and knife fights. My favourites were “The Circular Ruins” (a magician creates a son in a dream to send to another tower only to discover that he must also be a dream creation), “Death and the Compass” (an ingenious murder plot using religious symbolism), “The Two Kings and their Two Labyrinths”, and “Borges and Myself” where the character Borges talked about the writer Borges.
“Years ago, I tried ridding myself of him and I went from myths of the outlying slums of the city to games with time and infinity, but those games are now part of Borges and I will have to turn to other things”.
This book also has an autobiographical essay and some commentaries on the stories.
“Years ago, I tried ridding myself of him and I went from myths of the outlying slums of the city to games with time and infinity, but those games are now part of Borges and I will have to turn to other things”.
This book also has an autobiographical essay and some commentaries on the stories.
gengelcox's review
4.0
Comments on each story:
"The Aleph"--Like most of his stories, this one is brief but packs a lot of information into its short length. (For those who don't read outside of SF, imagine a J.G. Ballard condensed novel with more connections and a higher sense of the fantastic. Hmm, that was a worthless description. It is hard to find a match for Borges in the genre, because he was always succinct, and could never have survived in the dog-eat-dog world of pay by word.) The gimmick is simple--the aleph is to space what eternity is to time--but the method by which the author discovers it is unusual. I like Borges because his approach to a fantastic concept is unlike any found in the genre. Genre writing seems to emphasize the gimmick, in mainstream writing it is simply one part of the landscape against which the characters are placed. Only in Borges do all elements seem equal, similar in concept to his own aleph, to return in a style similar to Borges himself.
"Streetcorner Man"--A first-person tale of one night in the barrio, when the ones who talk big get their comeuppance by the quiet ones. OK, but I like my stories to have a little something more.
"The Approach to aI-Mu'tasim"--A review of a fictional book which reads, again, like a condensed novel, only in this case it truly is one. The literary device is ingenious, allowing Borges to comment on literary criticism at the same time he is creating literature.
"The Circular Ruins"--One of Borges' favorite subjects is the concept of infinity, another is creation. Here he bends the two together in a story that is also a metaphor for the process of setting and achieving goals.
"Death and the Compass"--A logic problem to a mystery story, almost like Edgar Allen Poe. Poe, though, would have stretched it out to twice its length.
"The Life of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829-1874)"--I did not quite follow this one. At one point I thought that maybe Cruz was going to be killing his own father, but instead he goes to the aid of himself?
"The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths"--A fable, or a sermon, that addresses what is a labyrinth. Highly appropriate subject for a Borges collection.
"The Dead Man"--A gaucho story. Think of it as a Louis L'amour story with Argentines and Brazilians instead of Mexicans and Texans. Okay, but it's still a western at heart.
"The Other Death"--This is what I look for in Borges: a fantastical study of memory and history, reality and dream. Pedro did not act like a hero in the battle... or did he?
"Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth"--Another great story of mazes and mystery. Borges has an unusual way of framing his tales, usually with an objective third person narrator, that shortens the stories tremendously. I guess he did not get paid by the word.
"The Man On the Threshold"--Another mystery, but not quite as fantastic as the others. Some Of these stories are morality or revenge plays, that do not require much speculation.
"The Challenge"--A rehash of some of the gaucho themes, certainly my last favorite of his tropes. What I find interesting is the references to other stories flirt makes this seem like a reference article instead of a story.
"The Captive"--A short short about a boy captured as a young child by natives. Borges here formulates a question about the nature of memory.
"Borges and Myself"--Here, as in "Isidore Cruz" above, Borges talks about the nature of identity. When you look at how others perceive you and realize that that is not how you perceive yourself is a crisis of identity (as in here), or how people might perceive a younger version of you. I often look at my current life and wonder. There is no way that Glen circa. 1980 could have ever dreamed of becoming the Glen of 1998. Thoughts and hopes and goals are all so mutable. The funny thing is that I will reread these words 10 or more years from now and be struck by the same strangeness.
"The Maker"--A discussion of what it means to go blind, nominally about Homer, but also about Borges' own condition. I had not realized that Borges had gone blind before his death.
"The Intruder"--Borges says that his mother, who he dictated this story to, hated it, and I can see why. It's not something I would recommend to any woman, as it is quite misogynstic. However, it is an incredible story, and a fairly straightforward one for Borges, about friendship and brotherhood.
"The Immortals"--A science fiction tale, strangely incongruous here. Well done, but it seems much more dated than almost everything else in this collection (stories from 1933 to 1969).
"The Meeting"--Clever little tale about people and weapons. Almost a trick story, because the title refers to something other than what you expect.
"Pedro Salvadores"--Short short about dictatorships and living "underground" (actually, both literally and figuratively). Borges had a real knack for the short short, never an easy thing to write.
"Rosendo's Tale"--To come almost entirely full circle, this tale is a sequel or antidote to the second story,
"Streetcorner Man." The gaucho here is more realistic, not so macho, and I find myself appreciating this more because of having seen the Hemingway-ish earlier story.
Finally, there is an autobiographical essay at the end, for those of us who wonder how Borges evolved (as Borges himself does in "Borges and Myself"). This collection is an excellent introduction to Borges, and clearly shows how he revolutionized the short story and became the pater familias of a new genre classification.
"The Aleph"--Like most of his stories, this one is brief but packs a lot of information into its short length. (For those who don't read outside of SF, imagine a J.G. Ballard condensed novel with more connections and a higher sense of the fantastic. Hmm, that was a worthless description. It is hard to find a match for Borges in the genre, because he was always succinct, and could never have survived in the dog-eat-dog world of pay by word.) The gimmick is simple--the aleph is to space what eternity is to time--but the method by which the author discovers it is unusual. I like Borges because his approach to a fantastic concept is unlike any found in the genre. Genre writing seems to emphasize the gimmick, in mainstream writing it is simply one part of the landscape against which the characters are placed. Only in Borges do all elements seem equal, similar in concept to his own aleph, to return in a style similar to Borges himself.
"Streetcorner Man"--A first-person tale of one night in the barrio, when the ones who talk big get their comeuppance by the quiet ones. OK, but I like my stories to have a little something more.
"The Approach to aI-Mu'tasim"--A review of a fictional book which reads, again, like a condensed novel, only in this case it truly is one. The literary device is ingenious, allowing Borges to comment on literary criticism at the same time he is creating literature.
"The Circular Ruins"--One of Borges' favorite subjects is the concept of infinity, another is creation. Here he bends the two together in a story that is also a metaphor for the process of setting and achieving goals.
"Death and the Compass"--A logic problem to a mystery story, almost like Edgar Allen Poe. Poe, though, would have stretched it out to twice its length.
"The Life of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829-1874)"--I did not quite follow this one. At one point I thought that maybe Cruz was going to be killing his own father, but instead he goes to the aid of himself?
"The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths"--A fable, or a sermon, that addresses what is a labyrinth. Highly appropriate subject for a Borges collection.
"The Dead Man"--A gaucho story. Think of it as a Louis L'amour story with Argentines and Brazilians instead of Mexicans and Texans. Okay, but it's still a western at heart.
"The Other Death"--This is what I look for in Borges: a fantastical study of memory and history, reality and dream. Pedro did not act like a hero in the battle... or did he?
"Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth"--Another great story of mazes and mystery. Borges has an unusual way of framing his tales, usually with an objective third person narrator, that shortens the stories tremendously. I guess he did not get paid by the word.
"The Man On the Threshold"--Another mystery, but not quite as fantastic as the others. Some Of these stories are morality or revenge plays, that do not require much speculation.
"The Challenge"--A rehash of some of the gaucho themes, certainly my last favorite of his tropes. What I find interesting is the references to other stories flirt makes this seem like a reference article instead of a story.
"The Captive"--A short short about a boy captured as a young child by natives. Borges here formulates a question about the nature of memory.
"Borges and Myself"--Here, as in "Isidore Cruz" above, Borges talks about the nature of identity. When you look at how others perceive you and realize that that is not how you perceive yourself is a crisis of identity (as in here), or how people might perceive a younger version of you. I often look at my current life and wonder. There is no way that Glen circa. 1980 could have ever dreamed of becoming the Glen of 1998. Thoughts and hopes and goals are all so mutable. The funny thing is that I will reread these words 10 or more years from now and be struck by the same strangeness.
"The Maker"--A discussion of what it means to go blind, nominally about Homer, but also about Borges' own condition. I had not realized that Borges had gone blind before his death.
"The Intruder"--Borges says that his mother, who he dictated this story to, hated it, and I can see why. It's not something I would recommend to any woman, as it is quite misogynstic. However, it is an incredible story, and a fairly straightforward one for Borges, about friendship and brotherhood.
"The Immortals"--A science fiction tale, strangely incongruous here. Well done, but it seems much more dated than almost everything else in this collection (stories from 1933 to 1969).
"The Meeting"--Clever little tale about people and weapons. Almost a trick story, because the title refers to something other than what you expect.
"Pedro Salvadores"--Short short about dictatorships and living "underground" (actually, both literally and figuratively). Borges had a real knack for the short short, never an easy thing to write.
"Rosendo's Tale"--To come almost entirely full circle, this tale is a sequel or antidote to the second story,
"Streetcorner Man." The gaucho here is more realistic, not so macho, and I find myself appreciating this more because of having seen the Hemingway-ish earlier story.
Finally, there is an autobiographical essay at the end, for those of us who wonder how Borges evolved (as Borges himself does in "Borges and Myself"). This collection is an excellent introduction to Borges, and clearly shows how he revolutionized the short story and became the pater familias of a new genre classification.
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