Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art

by Bell Villada Gene H, Gene H. Bell-Villada

A thorough analysis of the Argentinian writer's short stories emphasizes his story-telling abilities and influence on American literature.

Genres: Literary Criticism, Criticism

Paperback

First published May 28, 1981

Reviews

[Wim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good companion to Borges his major works: ficciones, the Aleph and other stories.

Every story is discussed and details, angles given to better understand the sometimes complex and erudite meanderings in each story.

I read this guide in parallel to above cited works and i can only recommend every new reader of Borges to do the same. I started rather critical after reading the first stories of ficciones but towards the end of the Aleph stories I became an aficionada helped also by this wonderful guide.

Outside the major works, Borges other works are treated very curator, his later works, or not (his poetry). This is certainly an area where i would like an alternative opinion and I have on my shelve as a future read:The Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges

The last 2 chapters of this book i would rather give a light 3 stars. Bell-vida tries to explain why Borges peaked in the forties through a short overview of the political situation in Argentine/ south America. This is for me too simplified and I still do not understand Borges his relation with Peronism.
Also his influence on the cultural scene in US is treated but in my opinion too hasty way and almost as an obligatory after-thought.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

A guide to the stories of Jorge Luis Borges, which goes through them book by book and story by story, explaining the references and putting the stories in the context of his life and events. It gave me a better appreciation of some of the stories I hadn't enjoyed so much, particularly all the gaucho stories. Although the revised edition was written after Borges' death and claims to be based on all his works, there is no mention of his last collection, La memoria de Shakespeare.