Back in 1971, Jay Parini was a graduate student at The University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Like most twenty-somethings, Parini was struggling with his career path, his virginity, and the prospect that he might be sent to Viet Nam. Parini’s friend, poet and translator Alastair Reid, asked Parini if he could serve as a tour guide to a visiting Latin American writer. Parini reluctantly agreed.
The “visiting Latin American writer” turned out to be the blind, elderly, and quirky Jorge Luis Borges who Parini knew nothing about. The result of the trip around Scotland by Borges and Parini produces humor and melancholy. Borges babbles on and on about everything while Parini drives and tries to figure out his life.
The funniest scene for me was the night Borges and Parini stay at an old inn run by an old woman. The only bathroom in the inn can only be accessed through the old woman’s bedroom. And, of course, Borges has to pee every hour. The antics that night cracked me up!
If you’re in the mood for a road trip with fun, frivolity, and fatalism, Borges and Me is an adventure worth sharing. Are you a Borges fan? GRADE: A
Sounds like fun. Haven’t read much, if any. Borgas though. Always mix him up with Marquez.
Patti, I prefer Borges over Marquez although ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE is a masterpiece.
Sounds great! I put it on hold. I haven’t read that much Borges, but I have read a couple of his collections (one was SIX PROBLEMS FOR DON ISIDRO PARODI, written with Adolfo Bioy Casares and published as by H. Bustos Domecq) and enjoyed them.
That bathroom story reminded me: in 1972 we stayed at a farm near Somerset on our first trip around England and Scotland. Mrs. Hudson was a wonderful cook, but the rich food gave me a stomach ache, and I was trying to find my way around the house to the bathroom in the middle of the night. When I finally found what I thought was the right room and turned on the light, it turned out to be another couple’s bedroom! Fortunately, I turned off the light before they saw me,
Jeff, the bathroom scene in BORGES AND ME had me laughing out loud! You had a similar experience so it will be even more funny for you!
How can anyone not be a Borges fan? As much as I love FICCIONES, THE ALEPH, and other collections, my favorite is his OTHER INQUISITIONS, a book of literary essays.
Jeff, Mrs. Hudson? Really? A long way from Baker Street.
Yes it was. I could actually have seen her as Holmes’s landlady. Great cook. Every night was a different roast with potatoes and veg and great desserts. Yum.
Jerry, when I finished BORGES AND ME I wanted to immediately drop everything and read OTHER INQUISITIONS!
George, I have not read Jorge Luis Borges but this book does sound like “fun”. I enjoy reading real-life anecdotal humour.
Prashant, I highly recommend Borges! But, I found BORGES AND ME both amusing and moving.
I often wonder how you all find the time for reading so many books, I just can’t keep.
And I’ve been reading so much that they used to call me a Leseratte (reading rat) – now what should we call people like George? 🙂 🙂
Wolf, I’ll settle for George the Tempter.
I took a class from Alistair Reid, in 1986, in Borges’s literature, which I’d been reading nearly all my literate life. (Reid wasn’t too keen on my translation of a certain story, and I don’t blame him…it would’ve been much more sensible to tackle something like “Los dos reyes y los dos laberintos”–“The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths”…but that seemed Too Easy. I missed Borges speaking a mile from my family’s house in 1985…still something that irks me. I’ll probably need to read this book.
Todd, you’ll get a kick out of BORGES AND ME. Apparantly the new translations of Borges’ work by Andrew Hurley aren’t as good as early translations.
No. They’re a disgrace…and I’m definitely one to keep beating that drum. EVERYONE else has done better work thus than Hurley (except perhaps me), and Penguin’s continuing to put Hurley’s clumsy work forward as the *Official English language versions (from Us!)* is foolish as well as irresponsible. Go find the Dutton Borges and Di Giovanni volumes, Reid’s own survey BORGES: A READER, which draws from several sources, and such earlier efforts as the New Directions LABYRINTHS and the Grove A PERSONAL ANTHOLOGY.
Todd, I’m with you on the Hurley translations. Terrible.