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A review by saareman
Liivaraamat. Shakespeare'i mälu by Jorge Luis Borges
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
<b>Bonus Track</b> I couldn't resist doing up a quick JLB bingo card, based on a prompt from the GR is dying? discussion group 😊.
<img src="https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/468932453_28755794420685970_8501271238377355473_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=h90v0dxK__0Q7kNvgGJxE__&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-yyz1-1.xx&_nc_gid=AopgLeI-V63YQ4xJzsNyqiH&oh=00_AYBkjlDqVRlUZaQ1K3w9x_lVfBPrSa-m9mzUphLk4r5ncQ&oe=6754411E">
<b>The Book of Sand and Shakespeare’s Memory in Estonian</b>
<i>A review of the Loomingu Raamatukogu Kuldsari paperback (2023) reissued from (2017) as originally translated by [author:Kai Aareleid|6539448] from the Spanish language originals [book:el libro de la arena|28447874] (1975) and [book:La memoria de Shakespeare|929588] (1983).</i>
[3.9 Average rounded up to a 4 star for GR]
Considering that I use a quote from Borges as my motto*, I haven't actually read that many of his works. This recent reissue of the Estonian translation of his last two collections gave me a chance to amend that, as well as read in my heritage language which can always use some practice.
Argentinean writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges">Jorge Luis Borges</a> (1899-1986) was blind after the age of 55, so these late stories were all dictated. Of the 4 contained in the final collection <i>Shakespeare's Memory</i> (1983), 3 were actually published in journals in 1977.
<img src="https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/468431898_28687251734206906_4791079046952013875_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s720x720&_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=KYbzT0dChYwQ7kNvgHrwZSh&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-yyz1-1.xx&_nc_gid=AfVuQJ_t9Qhui-iNxqzna0v&oh=00_AYAJLH3ipXxfsD2KH6GtRegg814kl3TlXullaO6sqBfTBA&oe=67526772">
<i>An AI generated image drawn from the prompt: Draw an old man reading a book of sand.</i>
I quite enjoyed getting reacquainted with Borges and his mix of fantasy, mythology and philosophy. I hope to read further soon. While reading, I did individual story ratings and setups as <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user_status/show/953655349">status updates</a> in Estonian. The following are my English language summaries.
1. <b>Other</b> **** Borges as himself starts off by saying that he avoiding telling this story previously as it would have driven him insane. This supposedly happened to him in Boston in 1969. The 70 year old Borges sits down on a park bench and his 20 year old self sits down beside him. The elder tells the younger about what future awaits him.
2. <b>Ulrika</b> *** Javier from Colombia meets Ulrika, a Norwegian, at a conference. Ulrika says that she prefers to walk alone. Javier says that is also his preference and that they could do that together. When they walk they talk of the Nibelung Sagas and how Sigurd and Brunhild slept with a sword between them. When they return to the hotel they go too bed, but there is no sword between them. [This is the only time that Borges wrote a romance story.]
3. <b>The Congress</b> ***** The narrator, Alejandro Ferri, arrives in Buenos Aires in 1899. He is asked to join a sort of secret society called The Congress of the World, an effort to represent all of humanity. Various steps are taken such as collecting a library, building a headquarters, and deciding on the common language. Eventually the Congress is dissolved but regardless of that, it still carries on in all of us. [Borges himself considered this his best story ever.]
4. <b>There Are More Things: In memory of H.P. Lovecraft</b> **** A nephew inherits a supposed cursed house, the Red House but explores it one night nevertheless. He discovers items which indicate that a large creature, possibly of extraterrestrial origin is living there. In typical Lovecraft fashion, the final sentence leaves us anticipating the horror to come.
5. <b>The Sect of 30</b> *** A work that purports to be a translation of an ancient 4th century manuscript of a sect that worships both Jesus and Judas while otherwise giving up all their possessions and refusing to be converted to regular Christianity. The very short 3-page story simply stops mid-sentence and then states that the rest of the manuscript is lost.
6. <b>The Night of Gifts</b> **** A man tells a story of when he was younger and visited a store with a friend. In that store a young woman talks about bandit raids, when they are attacked by the Argentinean bandit Juan Moreira. The boy hides with the girl. When they reappear, a sergeant has killed Moreira. The man says his younger self had the gift of seeing love and death that night.
7. <b>The Mirror and the Mask</b> *** In an alternate universe, after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Clontarf">Battle of Clontarf</a>, the High King asks his bard to write a poem in commemoration, for which a silver mirror is given as a reward. After another year and poem, a golden mask is the reward. But then after the third year, the poem is only a single line, with fateful consequences.
8. <b>Undr</b> *** Purports to be a translation of a lost manuscript written by the 11th century chronicler <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_of_Bremen">Adam of Bremen</a> who listens to the story of an Icelandic poet Ulf Sigurdarson who lived with a tribe called the Urns whose poems were single words.
9. <b>A Weary Man’s Utopia</b> **** A 70 year old language teacher and writer of fantasy (like Borges) named Eudoro Acevedo arrives at a house which is apparently Utopia in the future. He meets a man in the house who tells him that trivial things no longer exist, nor do governments. He gifts Acevedo a painting which travels back with him to the past.
10. <b>The Bribe</b> *** A professor of Old English has to decide between two candidates as to who to recommend for a future position. One of the candidates is rather bland and the other is youthful and ambitious. The second one has insulted the professor in one of his published papers.
11. <b>Avelino Arredondo</b> *** An imagined life of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avelino_Arredondo">the title character</a> in the two months leading up to the fateful day of August 25, 1897 when he assassinated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Idiarte_Borda">the President of Uruguay</a>.
12. <b>The Disk</b> **** A man seeks shelter in the hut of a woodcutter. He reveals that he is a king and descended from Odin and is the keeper of the disk of Odin, which is one sided. He reveals the disk, which is invisible, but when it is touched a chill is felt and a flash is seen. The woodcutter covets the disk.
13. <b>The Book of Sand</b> ***** A man buys a book from a Bible seller which is written in an unknown language with occasional illustrations. The cover says that it is holy writ, but it is otherwise known as the book of sand. He discovers that the book is of infinite length. As you turn pages, more pages start to grow in the front and the back.
14. <b>Afterword</b> **** Borges writes: "Writing a foreword to stories that the reader hasn't read yet is an almost impossible task, because it requires talking about plots that shouldn't really be told in advance. That's why I decided to write an epilogue instead."
15. <b>25. August 1983</b> ***** Borges was born August 24, 1899. This is yet another version of the doppelgänger first story of <i>The Book of Sand</i> called <i>Other</i>. A 61-year-old Borges checks into a hotel where he sees that his even older self has already registered. The younger rushes up to the room to confront the older 84 year old who tells him about the events which are yet to happen to him.
16. <b>Blue Tigers</b> **** A tiger-obsessed Scottish professor travels to India because he has heard that blue tigers have been seen. When he goes to live in a village of Hindus, various magical events occur there such as finding blue stones which multiply themselves.
17. <b>The Rose of Paraclesus</b> **** A potential acolyte approaches the alchemist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus">Paracelsus</a> and says that he will devote his life to following him if only Paracelsus will resurrect a rose blossom after it has been burnt to ashes.
18. <b>Shakespeare’s Memory</b> **** A Shakespeare obsessed German receives Shakespeare’s memory from another man who wanted to get rid of it. He finds that gradually his own language and memories are disappearing and his memory is being taken over by those of Shakespeare.
19. <b>Borges Looks Back</b> ***** This is the Afterword by Klaarika Kaldjärv. As always with the Estonian Loomingu Raamatukogu this provides an excellent overview of the career and writings of the original writer.
<b>* Footnote</b>
<blockquote><i>yo, que me figuraba el Paraiso
bajo la especie de una biblioteca.</i>
- Jorge Luis Borges (Poema de los Dones)</blockquote>
[When I imagine Heaven, I always picture it as a kind of library.]
<b>Trivia and Links</b>
The <i>LR Kuldsari</i> (Estonian: Golden Series) presents readers with a selection of works published in the Loomingu Raamatukogu (Estonian: The Creative's Library) throughout the ages. These are favorites from over the past six decades which confirm that the classics never get old! Six books will be published annually, one every two months. - translated from the publisher's website.
The <a href="http://www.loominguraamatukogu.ee/">Loomingu Raamatukogu</a> is a modestly priced Estonian literary journal which initially published weekly (from 1957 to 1994) and which now publishes 40 issues in about 20 volumes a year as of 1995. It is a great source for discovery as its relatively cheap prices (currently 8 to 9€ per issue) allow for access to a multitude of international writers in Estonian translation and of shorter works by Estonian authors themselves. These include poetry, theatre, essays, short stories, novellas and novels. The lengthier works are usually counted as several issues but printed in a single volume.
For a complete listing of all works issued to date by Loomingu Raamatukogu including those in the Golden Series (at the bottom) see Estonian Wikipedia at: https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loomingu_Raamatukogus_ilmunud_teoste_loend_aastak%C3%A4iguti
<img src="https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/468932453_28755794420685970_8501271238377355473_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=h90v0dxK__0Q7kNvgGJxE__&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-yyz1-1.xx&_nc_gid=AopgLeI-V63YQ4xJzsNyqiH&oh=00_AYBkjlDqVRlUZaQ1K3w9x_lVfBPrSa-m9mzUphLk4r5ncQ&oe=6754411E">
<b>The Book of Sand and Shakespeare’s Memory in Estonian</b>
<i>A review of the Loomingu Raamatukogu Kuldsari paperback (2023) reissued from (2017) as originally translated by [author:Kai Aareleid|6539448] from the Spanish language originals [book:el libro de la arena|28447874] (1975) and [book:La memoria de Shakespeare|929588] (1983).</i>
[3.9 Average rounded up to a 4 star for GR]
Considering that I use a quote from Borges as my motto*, I haven't actually read that many of his works. This recent reissue of the Estonian translation of his last two collections gave me a chance to amend that, as well as read in my heritage language which can always use some practice.
Argentinean writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges">Jorge Luis Borges</a> (1899-1986) was blind after the age of 55, so these late stories were all dictated. Of the 4 contained in the final collection <i>Shakespeare's Memory</i> (1983), 3 were actually published in journals in 1977.
<img src="https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/468431898_28687251734206906_4791079046952013875_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s720x720&_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=KYbzT0dChYwQ7kNvgHrwZSh&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-yyz1-1.xx&_nc_gid=AfVuQJ_t9Qhui-iNxqzna0v&oh=00_AYAJLH3ipXxfsD2KH6GtRegg814kl3TlXullaO6sqBfTBA&oe=67526772">
<i>An AI generated image drawn from the prompt: Draw an old man reading a book of sand.</i>
I quite enjoyed getting reacquainted with Borges and his mix of fantasy, mythology and philosophy. I hope to read further soon. While reading, I did individual story ratings and setups as <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user_status/show/953655349">status updates</a> in Estonian. The following are my English language summaries.
1. <b>Other</b> **** Borges as himself starts off by saying that he avoiding telling this story previously as it would have driven him insane. This supposedly happened to him in Boston in 1969. The 70 year old Borges sits down on a park bench and his 20 year old self sits down beside him. The elder tells the younger about what future awaits him.
2. <b>Ulrika</b> *** Javier from Colombia meets Ulrika, a Norwegian, at a conference. Ulrika says that she prefers to walk alone. Javier says that is also his preference and that they could do that together. When they walk they talk of the Nibelung Sagas and how Sigurd and Brunhild slept with a sword between them. When they return to the hotel they go too bed, but there is no sword between them. [This is the only time that Borges wrote a romance story.]
3. <b>The Congress</b> ***** The narrator, Alejandro Ferri, arrives in Buenos Aires in 1899. He is asked to join a sort of secret society called The Congress of the World, an effort to represent all of humanity. Various steps are taken such as collecting a library, building a headquarters, and deciding on the common language. Eventually the Congress is dissolved but regardless of that, it still carries on in all of us. [Borges himself considered this his best story ever.]
4. <b>There Are More Things: In memory of H.P. Lovecraft</b> **** A nephew inherits a supposed cursed house, the Red House but explores it one night nevertheless. He discovers items which indicate that a large creature, possibly of extraterrestrial origin is living there. In typical Lovecraft fashion, the final sentence leaves us anticipating the horror to come.
5. <b>The Sect of 30</b> *** A work that purports to be a translation of an ancient 4th century manuscript of a sect that worships both Jesus and Judas while otherwise giving up all their possessions and refusing to be converted to regular Christianity. The very short 3-page story simply stops mid-sentence and then states that the rest of the manuscript is lost.
6. <b>The Night of Gifts</b> **** A man tells a story of when he was younger and visited a store with a friend. In that store a young woman talks about bandit raids, when they are attacked by the Argentinean bandit Juan Moreira. The boy hides with the girl. When they reappear, a sergeant has killed Moreira. The man says his younger self had the gift of seeing love and death that night.
7. <b>The Mirror and the Mask</b> *** In an alternate universe, after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Clontarf">Battle of Clontarf</a>, the High King asks his bard to write a poem in commemoration, for which a silver mirror is given as a reward. After another year and poem, a golden mask is the reward. But then after the third year, the poem is only a single line, with fateful consequences.
8. <b>Undr</b> *** Purports to be a translation of a lost manuscript written by the 11th century chronicler <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_of_Bremen">Adam of Bremen</a> who listens to the story of an Icelandic poet Ulf Sigurdarson who lived with a tribe called the Urns whose poems were single words.
9. <b>A Weary Man’s Utopia</b> **** A 70 year old language teacher and writer of fantasy (like Borges) named Eudoro Acevedo arrives at a house which is apparently Utopia in the future. He meets a man in the house who tells him that trivial things no longer exist, nor do governments. He gifts Acevedo a painting which travels back with him to the past.
10. <b>The Bribe</b> *** A professor of Old English has to decide between two candidates as to who to recommend for a future position. One of the candidates is rather bland and the other is youthful and ambitious. The second one has insulted the professor in one of his published papers.
11. <b>Avelino Arredondo</b> *** An imagined life of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avelino_Arredondo">the title character</a> in the two months leading up to the fateful day of August 25, 1897 when he assassinated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Idiarte_Borda">the President of Uruguay</a>.
12. <b>The Disk</b> **** A man seeks shelter in the hut of a woodcutter. He reveals that he is a king and descended from Odin and is the keeper of the disk of Odin, which is one sided. He reveals the disk, which is invisible, but when it is touched a chill is felt and a flash is seen. The woodcutter covets the disk.
13. <b>The Book of Sand</b> ***** A man buys a book from a Bible seller which is written in an unknown language with occasional illustrations. The cover says that it is holy writ, but it is otherwise known as the book of sand. He discovers that the book is of infinite length. As you turn pages, more pages start to grow in the front and the back.
14. <b>Afterword</b> **** Borges writes: "Writing a foreword to stories that the reader hasn't read yet is an almost impossible task, because it requires talking about plots that shouldn't really be told in advance. That's why I decided to write an epilogue instead."
15. <b>25. August 1983</b> ***** Borges was born August 24, 1899. This is yet another version of the doppelgänger first story of <i>The Book of Sand</i> called <i>Other</i>. A 61-year-old Borges checks into a hotel where he sees that his even older self has already registered. The younger rushes up to the room to confront the older 84 year old who tells him about the events which are yet to happen to him.
16. <b>Blue Tigers</b> **** A tiger-obsessed Scottish professor travels to India because he has heard that blue tigers have been seen. When he goes to live in a village of Hindus, various magical events occur there such as finding blue stones which multiply themselves.
17. <b>The Rose of Paraclesus</b> **** A potential acolyte approaches the alchemist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus">Paracelsus</a> and says that he will devote his life to following him if only Paracelsus will resurrect a rose blossom after it has been burnt to ashes.
18. <b>Shakespeare’s Memory</b> **** A Shakespeare obsessed German receives Shakespeare’s memory from another man who wanted to get rid of it. He finds that gradually his own language and memories are disappearing and his memory is being taken over by those of Shakespeare.
19. <b>Borges Looks Back</b> ***** This is the Afterword by Klaarika Kaldjärv. As always with the Estonian Loomingu Raamatukogu this provides an excellent overview of the career and writings of the original writer.
<b>* Footnote</b>
<blockquote><i>yo, que me figuraba el Paraiso
bajo la especie de una biblioteca.</i>
- Jorge Luis Borges (Poema de los Dones)</blockquote>
[When I imagine Heaven, I always picture it as a kind of library.]
<b>Trivia and Links</b>
The <i>LR Kuldsari</i> (Estonian: Golden Series) presents readers with a selection of works published in the Loomingu Raamatukogu (Estonian: The Creative's Library) throughout the ages. These are favorites from over the past six decades which confirm that the classics never get old! Six books will be published annually, one every two months. - translated from the publisher's website.
The <a href="http://www.loominguraamatukogu.ee/">Loomingu Raamatukogu</a> is a modestly priced Estonian literary journal which initially published weekly (from 1957 to 1994) and which now publishes 40 issues in about 20 volumes a year as of 1995. It is a great source for discovery as its relatively cheap prices (currently 8 to 9€ per issue) allow for access to a multitude of international writers in Estonian translation and of shorter works by Estonian authors themselves. These include poetry, theatre, essays, short stories, novellas and novels. The lengthier works are usually counted as several issues but printed in a single volume.
For a complete listing of all works issued to date by Loomingu Raamatukogu including those in the Golden Series (at the bottom) see Estonian Wikipedia at: https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loomingu_Raamatukogus_ilmunud_teoste_loend_aastak%C3%A4iguti