Guide Borges And The Eternal Orang-Utans

Borges and the Eternal Orangutans

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Excerpt: 'Borges and the Eternal Orangutans'

In fact, the narrator is an author, addressing his narrative to Borges, and in the end, Borges answers back. Under all this meta-fiction, the book is a locked-room murder mystery with an unreliable narrator, another Poe element , and you can read it on that level, but you won't come close to appreciating it unless you've read a few of Borges's short stories. Brazilian author Luis Fernando Verissimo totally nails the feel of a Borges story, and while this is a novel Borges famously only ever wrote short stories; he wrote no novels , it's a short one, which also makes it more believable as what could have been just a really long short story by Borges.

Since Borges writes the ending If you haven't read anything by Borges, you are missing a treat. Go read Labyrinths or Ficciones. Then read this book. Then read some Poe or Lovecraft. Not necessarily in that order. Jul 01, George K. Sep 16, Tyler Jones rated it it was amazing Shelves: An absolutely fatastic, multi-faceted gem of a story. When Vogelstein, an obscure translator and would be writer, decides to attend a Poe society convention in Beunos Aires it marks a departure from his reclusive world of words.

On his first night he meets his literary idol, Jorge Luis Borges, and is enmeshed in a murder as gruesome and puzzling as any found in the works of Poe. Soon he finds he finds himself a guest in the library of Borges as the two of them, along with the criminologist Cuervo An absolutely fatastic, multi-faceted gem of a story.

Soon he finds he finds himself a guest in the library of Borges as the two of them, along with the criminologist Cuervo, try to decode the clues and solve the mystery. A pitch-perfect mirror-image, if you like story of the type that Borges himself was famous for- full of symbolism, doppelgangers, iconography and powerful secret societies.

Above all it is about the ultimate power of words; a power that can create and possibly destroy the universe. A charming hommage to Borges that could stand alongside the works of the master himself.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Jan 26, Lamski Kikita rated it it was amazing. After reading the Club of Angels, I thought an author could not possibly do better, but on my, this was such a riveting read. The narration as a letter is very engaging, the plot is mysterious and just has you on the edge of your seat, the characters interesting, the events mesmerizing, and the interpretations and conversations simply magical.

If you think one cannot combine Borjes, Poe, and Lovecraft in pages, you are sorely mistaken. This book is enticing and has me running to the bookshe After reading the Club of Angels, I thought an author could not possibly do better, but on my, this was such a riveting read. This book is enticing and has me running to the bookshelf gasping for some Borges. I will also be reading Poe and Lovecraft this year, all because of this wonderful book. Who ever thought writers were boring? Jun 17, Meg rated it really liked it Shelves: Borges and the Eternal Orangutans was a delight.

Short and sweet, it was the palate cleanser I so desperately needed just now.

This novella is a literary whodunit that's also a homage to Poe, Lovecraft, and above all, Borges. The narrator Vogelstein was quite funny and I definitely had a dumb grin on my face on the train while I was reading this. There are so many literary allusions and hints some of which I certainty didn't catch lovingly stitched into the pages, and passages that will delight Borges and the Eternal Orangutans was a delight. There are so many literary allusions and hints some of which I certainty didn't catch lovingly stitched into the pages, and passages that will delight those who love puzzles, language, words, and of course, Borges.

It was just really refreshing to read a book about books and literature that doesn't take itself too seriously but is a good mix of comedy and intellectual detective-ing. Some quotes I liked: The mother of all vowels. That which has neither beginning nor end.

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It must be a pictogram of the Sun. Our patron saint, Vogelstein. We write in order to remember, but those memories might belong to other people.

We could be creating universes, like Akhenaten's god, merely to amuse ourselves. We might unwittingly be placing monsters in the world. And without even leaving our chairs. Nov 28, Marne Wilson rated it really liked it. Lovecraft, John Dee, and many other figures of occult literature. Apr 12, Michael Sanderson-green rated it really liked it. Great title for a book. Great story that is full of academic, comic and mysterious elements.

Although a bit too erudite for me a times it all comes clear at the end. Worth more than one read. Mar 21, Julia rated it really liked it Shelves: At pages, this little gem came up as a recommendation in one of my goodreads groups, and I read it in an hour.

Borges and the Eternal Orangutans is written by Luis Fernando Verissimo and translated by Margaret Jull Costa , who has won several awards for her elegant translations. The Amazon blurb says: Suddenly, fate grabs hold of his insignificant life and carries him off to Buenos Aires, to a conference on Edgar Allan Poe , the inventor At pages, this little gem came up as a recommendation in one of my goodreads groups, and I read it in an hour.

Suddenly, fate grabs hold of his insignificant life and carries him off to Buenos Aires, to a conference on Edgar Allan Poe , the inventor of the modern detective story. There Vogelstein meets his idol, Jorge Luis Borges , and for reasons that a mere passion for literature cannot explain, he finds himself at the center of a murder investigation that involves arcane demons, the mysteries of the Kaballah, the possible destruction of the world, and the Elizabethan magus John Dee's theory of the "Eternal Orangutan," which, given all the time in the world, would end up writing all the known books in the cosmos.

Verissimo fills this tiny book with many allusions to Borges, as well as to Poe and H. Lovecraft , so those who are familiar with these three writers will get the "in-jokes" sprinkled through this charming novella. The reference to John Dee led me to seek some more information about him.

Verissimo captures that hunger for magic and mystery which motivated all three authors--Borges, Poe, and Lovecraft. Aug 18, Jigar Brahmbhatt rated it really liked it. Brilliant in its conception, this is a kind of book I can devour in a single sitting.

Excerpt: 'Borges and the Eternal Orangutans'

The "young master's books" were not to be touched, wherever they were in our small Bonfim apartment, and the shelf containing my editions of Borges was a kind of reliquary which, if profaned, could cost them their hands. In the end, before she asked to be sent to an old folks home, Aunt Raquel was obliged to be cared for by me, always cursing herself for putting me to so much bother. I should be devoting myself to my translations and to my books, not dealing out sedatives to a useless old woman.

Going into a home was her way of freeing me from my gratitude and was yet another way of protecting me. Aunt Raquel protected me far too much throughout her life. Perhaps she was afraid I might have inherited the fatal ingenuousness of her sister, Miriam, my mother, who died in a concentration camp in Poland, having been handed over to the Gestapo by her so-called "protector". Everything I know about my mother comes from my Aunt Raquel. Her red hair, her very white skin, her far too innocent heart. My mother's "protector", according to Aunt Raquel.

The monster about whom we never heard anything more. The four of them are smiling at the camera. My mother is the prettiest of the three sisters. She looks radiant in her summer dress and broad-brimmed hat. The man is wearing a woollen scarf around his neck and has one arm resting on the back of his chair. With the other, he is raising his glass to the photographer.

But that has nothing to do with our story, Jorge. All I remember of that visit with Aunt Raquel to Buenos Aires - the first time the two sisters had met since fleeing Germany - was a fat cousin called Pipo, who had a high-pitched voice and kept kicking me. Not until years later did I visit Buenos Aires again. Anxious to patch up our misunderstanding, Borges, I went by bus!

The magazine printed translations of stories that appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine , and, once, I translated a story by a certain Jorge Luis Borges, of whom I — an anglophile and americanophile already obsessed with Poe — had never heard.

I thought the story was dreadful, confused and lacking in excitement. It wasn't clear at the end who the criminal was, and the reader was forced to draw his or her own conclusions. I decided to improve it. I added a few lugubrious Poe-like touches to the plot and a completely new surprise ending that belied everything that had gone before, including the author's account of events.

Who would notice these changes in a translation into Portuguese of a translation into English of a story written in Spanish by an unknown Argentinian who should be grateful to me for adding a bit of extra blood and inventiveness to his text?

Your indignant but ironic letter did not take long to reach the publisher. Something about one mystery too many being on the loose in his magazine and which not even "Mr Queen" himself could explain. Some Brazilian bright spark, endowed with the most unbelievable arrogance, had been attacking defenceless texts and changing them out of all recognition. This was obviously a case for a committee of literary detectives or for a study of the criminal mind at work on fiction.

Since I was the criminal in question, I was charged with answering the letter. I tried to respond in the same tone saying that, far from seeing myself as a treacherous mutilator, I thought of myself more as a plastic surgeon undertaking minor corrective surgery, and I was very sorry that you did not appreciate the results of my poor attempts at cosmetic improvement. I apologised for having forgotten the first rule in plastic surgery which was to ask if the patient liked his new nose. In your reply, Borges, you wrote that although you were accustomed to the arrogance of translators, I had clearly taken this occupational disease to new pathological heights.

As a translator, I constituted quite enough of a danger, but as a plastic surgeon, I would be a positive public menace, since I displayed an alarming lack of anatomical precision. I had not tampered with the face of his text, I had added a grotesque tail, an ending that transformed the author into the worst villain a detective story can have: My "tail" did not even have the redeeming virtue of elegance. Or even of usefulness, which might have recommended it to an orangutan as a way of helping it to keep its balance, but not as a way of stripping someone else's text of all its original character.

He requested that, in the future, I keep well away from both his texts and his nose. Vogelstein and Borges have a history, too: I decided to improve it. I added a few lugubrious Poe-like touches to the plot and a completely new surprise ending that belied everything that had gone before, including the author's account of events. Borges didn't take too kindly to this, and a correspondence ensued -- with Borges soon cutting it off, but Vogelstein continuing to awkwardly and futilely try to set things right and apologise. At the conference their paths cross again, though Borges doesn't seem to remember him.

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The conference doesn't go quite as expected: Appropriately, it's a puzzling, Poe-like locked-room murder: Vogelstein was one of the last to speak with Rotkopf, and one of those who found him. Borges is fascinated by the puzzle, and he invites Vogelstein to share his observations as eyewitness and conference participant and speculate on how the crime might have been accomplished, and by who. One confusing trail after another emerges, in part because Vogelstein keeps remembering the position of the body differently, and both he and Borges read a great deal into various clues.