by Alberto Manguel
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by Alberto Manguel
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by Alberto Manguel
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by Alberto Manguel
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by Alberto Manguel
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Product Description
Amazon.ca
In this elegant little memoir, winner of the Prix du Livre en Poitou-Charentes in 2003, Alberto Manguel recalls his visits with the famous literary master, Jorge Luis Borges, in Buenos Aires during the 1960s. When the two men first met in a bookstore, the blind Borges asked Manguel if he would be willing to read aloud to him in his apartment. The younger man agreed and thus began a fascinating friendship, one that gives the reader an intimate view into the arcane, magical life of one of the 20th century's greatest writers.
Using a simple but effective structure, Manguel mixes present tense anecdotes of his time with Borges--"memories of memories of memories"--with reflections on the Argentine writer's work. Manguel is a master of style--in one long, beautifully constructed sentence he writes of how Borges spoke of his blindness from the points-of-view of history, science, superstition, and elegy ("blindness and old age were different ways of being alone," Manguel writes). The author enumerates Borges's wide-ranging and manifold reading interests; records his acute, extravagant intelligence; and reveals his prejudices and his prodigious memory of the written word, which seemed more real to Borges than his daily life. Manguel reminds the reader of the fantastic ideas behind many of the Argentine's short stories and poems: that a single book, for example, contains all others because a book is nothing but the rearrangement of twenty-some letters. This exquisite little book, printed on fine paper, should be read slowly and savoured. --Mark Frutkin --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
During the 1960's, Alberto Manguel, then a teenager, worked after school at a bookstore in Buenos Aires. One day, the legendary Jorge Luis Borges, who would come into the store after work, asked the young man if he would mind coming to his apartment to read to him in the evenings. Borges, a giant of modern literature, had gradually become blind and could no longer read his beloved books. For several years, Manguel spent many evenings reading to the master of fiction he had studied at school. He witnessed the blind Borges' extraordinary ability to pick out from the shelf titles he knew he would enjoy simply by running his fingers along the spines of the books. He discovered Borges' fondness for Sherlock Holmes, watched gangster movies starring James Cagney, and sat through "West Side Story" with him. But even as he visited Borges in his dark, comfortable apartment, reading out loud and talking about books, we glimpse the inner world of a literary legend. Illustrated by rare photos of Borges by Argentinian Sara Facio, this book is a remarkable window into the private life of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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