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Card 14266 X6 Pk Dyes

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Those of us who have followed the writing career of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) from outside of Argentina have seen him primarily as the pathetic old blind man grasping on to the arms of his visitors as they wended their way to some café in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires. What this excellent short biography by Jason Wilson reminds us is that Borges was at one time a dashing young man who lived through exciting times.

At the same time, he always lived with his mother. It was not until Doña Leonora died at an advanced age that Borges contracted marriage with Maria Kodama, a younger student of his who was willing to "do" for him in his old age. There is even some question as to whether the author ever had a normal sexual life outside of dealings with prostitutes, which went against his grain, especially after his father forcibly precipitated his sexual experience with his own mistress in a Geneva brothel.

Perhaps Borges felt there was a congenital doom in his family. His father, too, had gone blind; but surgery corrected his vision a few years before he committed suicide. These are not conditions that are conducive to a normal, happy and healthy sex drive.

What Borges lacked in that department is more than made up for the power of his imagination. During an almost Buddhist burst of contemplation in the late 1930s and early 1940s--just before his own blindness set in--Borges completed most of the poems and stories for which he is famous. The sad truth is that, after Borges became known outside of Argentina, his career was in decline. He continued to write, but never so much or so well as before.

Nonetheless, he was the recipient of many international awards--except for the biggest one of all. Because he met with, smiled, and shook the hands of two South American tyrants, Generals Videla of Argentina and Pinochet Ugarte of Chile, a member of the Swedish Academy resolved to blackball Borges every time his name came up for nomination. (It galls me that so many inferior talents have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but then, that's politics for you.)

Jason Wilson has written a short but sweet book that I heartily recommend to everyone who loves Borges as much as I do. Ever since 1969, when I first read LABYRINTHS, Borges has in a sense been my mentor in the world of literature; and I feel that Wilson has written an incisive and just book about this great author.