Conversations, Volume 1

Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina s master fabulist, was also an extraordinary conversationalist. There s not a subject he doesn t throw surprising new light on, whether it s to do with Kipling or tango. In fact, there s an impish element in his thinking. In these dialogues with a receptive Osvaldo Ferrari, he covers Buddhism, love, Henry James, Dante and much more as he circles round and digresses at whim. One cannot be sure where the 84-year-old blind man s wit will lead him, except that it s his form of freedom. Even if he s covered the subject before, this time round there s a new flash of insight. He s an optimist. There s always more to say. As with his written work as a whole, these dialogues configure a loose autobiography of a subtle, teasing mind. Looking back on his long life, it s no surprise that time and dreaming become topics, but these dialogues are not a memoir for all time is now. As in his tale The Other, where two Borges meet up on a bench beside the river Charles, we have a dialogue between a young poet and the elder teller of tales where all experience floats in a frightening miracle that defies linear time."