The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory (Penguin Modern Classics)

J.L Borges is one of the great writers of the 20th century. He takes his readers into a hidden world and makes it transparent.

A revelation. Changed my views of what literature could be.

Trying to full describe the writings of Jorge Luis Borges is like trying to explain exactly why Leonardo da Vinci's art still captivates. The man wrote works of art.And "The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory" brings together two of Borges' shorter collections, with all sorts of surreal twists in a seemingly ordinary world. These rich, slightly uneasy stories are a shining example of why people enjoy Borges -- magical, rich in language, and poignant in their finality.Interestingly, two of the stories -- one from each collection -- have strikingly similar stories. "August 25, 1983" has Borges stumbling across an older version of himself, dying as he tells Borges a bit about his future. And "The Other" has Borges at Cambridge, where he accidentally bumps into a younger version of himself, whom he imparts some wisdom to.But the stories are about far stranger things as well -- a hunt for blue tigers that leads to strangely fascinating stones, an alchemist's rose, a poet telling a king of pure beauty and wonder, receiving the hazy memories of Shakespeare, a book with no ending, the ultimate Word, a creepy religious sect, and even a Lovecraftian homage in which a man comes across grotesque aliens in a remote house.Good luck finding flaws in this book -- Borges' writing is exquisitely detailed and atmospheric, and densely packed with philosophical pockets. And these stories are magical realism in the purest sense, with a slight, almost mystical twist to the everyday events that we take for granted -- being mistaken for someone else, being sold a book, et cetera.And Borges wraps these stories in lush, digified prose that takes a little while to wade through, but the richness of the words he uses is worth it ("The sin the two of us now share... the sin of having known Beauty, which is a gift forbidden mankind"). He's even able to craft stories very unlike his usual style -- "The Mirror and the Mask" has the style and flavour of an ancient Irish myth.Perhaps it's because these were Borges' last stories, but there's a very reflective, introspective feeling to many of them -- Borges seems to be glancing back at his life, and ahead to his death. But he doesn't lose his touch for the haunting, almost otherworldly explorations ("Blue Tigers") and the feeling that the unnameable is just a misstep away."The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory" is a brilliant collection of Borges' exquisite stories. Magical and gritty, beautiful and haunting -- and sadly, the last work he did.

The Book of Sand, especially when read chronologically,after Borges earlier work, evokes a mood only comparable to Shakespeare's final romantic phase, in which the themes loss and gain, reconciliation, mortality and art itself meet under the guise of a fantastic neoclassic world. There is a modesty and an ease in Borges craft that, when dealing with the old themes of his literary and his personal life (perhaps for him these are synonymous) that gives us the sense of the master looking back on his art and on life and reflecting. Again we have the double Borges met in his earlier work, peering at himself from across the bounds of time that few writers have experimented with, especially in the teasing biographical way that Borges is known for. For Borges, as the world was realized by Shakespeare in his unsubstantial pageant ('all the worlds a stage'), his life and obsession- literature- emerges poignantly in his infinite volume- The Book of Sand.

Borges was an old man when he wrote these stories but why do they all have to be told by old men? It is a bit off-putting for this reader who is not an old man. Considering the imagination he unleashes, Borges could have considered also speaking with other voices. The least attractive stories for me were the ones that tell a sort of parallel Argentinean history. The translator did feel it necessary to supply a lot of notes for these stories, which should be a warning. The less geographically and temporally fixed stories are much more enjoyable. Borges' theme of infinite texts is revisited, as is his notion of time as a landscape that you can travel in, rather than a line. I give three stars as an average; a few stories are five-star, but others only one.

What an interesting writer. I talky enjoyed his style more than the subjects. It's a book full of short stories; some more interesting than others.

If one reads Jorge Luis Borges, you have read everyone and everything. Every story surrounds and fills you with a very distant sadness that has traveled ages to affect you like a gentle evening sea breeze.Penguin: For a legend like Borges, the paper quality is a great injustice.

This is one of the most reserved of all of Borges' writings. It is calmer and quieter and yet more unsettling and mysterious than much of his earlier work.

good and fast

Jorge Luis Borges is one of those authors everyone should read. So amazing.