Reviews

Borges on Writing by Frank MacShane, Jorge Luis Borges, Norman Thomas di Giovanni, Daniel Halpern

dereksilva's review against another edition

funny reflective medium-paced

3.0

There were certainly some interesting tidbits on how Borges thinks about writing stories and poems, but much of the book was tedious for me. Borges makes a lot of digressions and doesn't always speak in straight lines, so the meaning of certain things wasn't immediately clear to me in all cases. The final third, on translation, also offered good information on how Borges and his translator think about what's important in stories, but the section felt more scholarly than practical for my purposes.

dalcecilruno's review against another edition

informative reflective

5.0

Transcribed dialogues from Borges’s lectures at university. Wonderful stuff. It discusses writing fiction, poetry, translating works of literature and more. One of my favorite and most interesting writing craft books I’ve ever read. 

erba's review against another edition

4.0

Full of gems, like the fact that only in his 70s did Borges think he found his voice. The deconstruction of Borges writing is captivating. The parts about the difficulties that translators have in turning Borges poetry into English, not so much.

littlenyssa's review

4.0

Wonderful and intelligent.