Customer Reviews

Dreamtigers (Texas Pan American Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A collection of poems, short stories and Borgian tales, that touches every neuron in your brain. Reading Dreamtigers was an experience out of this world. Borges writes like nature does with space/time in a black hole, he compresses ideas and thoughts into a few words

I am not an avid reader of poetry, but Dreamtigers (which is about half poetry, half prose) ranks in my top five favorite books of all time. Borges never ceases to amaze me. I am always being reminded of his work as I read other books. It's actually kind of hard to put into words, but Dreamtigers is one of the most complete books ever written -- it amplifies and compliments itself and gives you a truly unique insight into the mind and the world.

Truly unique.

dreamtigers has languished on my shelf for over a year... for some reason i just couldn't get into it. foolish me.

this little book broken into two parts- a collection of short pieces some poetry. all very brief- the longest passage occupies a little over two pages.

what i'm really struck by is how personal this collection is. i've seen borges as a towering intellect but rather cold. dreamtigers has forced me to re-evaluate this- there's tenderness, loss and affection in these works.

borges is always dazzling, and the second part is a good introduction to his poetry, of which i understand there is a lot. the introductory and appendix notes are most illuminating.

A marvelous book. More enjoyable than "Ficciones," if that is possible. The way the scattered thread of prose and poetry are in actuality spinning around the librarian himself are evident after a few reads through; a book far more structured than apparent on the first trip though it.

I have never wanted to read Spanish more than after reading this.

Jorge Luis Borges will be remembered as one of the outstanding writers of the twentieth century. I am continually awed by his imagination, by his incredible breadth, and by his command of language.

At one point Borges considered this particular collection of miscellany - odd poems, stories, parables, sketches, fragments, and fictional quotations - to be a mirror of his life, and even possibly a work that would outlast his widely admired Ficciones and El Aleph. Dreamtigers is indeed fascinating, but it likely to be more fully appreciated by readers already familiar with Borges. A reader new to Jorge Luis Borges might begin with Ficciones, The Aleph, Labyrinths, or Seven Nights.

The prose was translated by Mildred Boyer and the poetry by Harold Morland. The arrangement is by Borges himself, and reflects an association of ideas, not a chronological grouping. Any reader acquainted with his works undoubtedly recognizes that Borges often returns to favorite themes in various guises, sometime deliberately, other times unintentionally.

This collection seems more personal and biographical than his better known works. The dedication is to an Argentine poet, long dead, that Borges once unreservedly criticized. The essay Dreamtigers is a personal reflection on the limits of creativity. The Draped Mirrors is a haunting recollection about a friend that suffered a uniquely personal (from Borges perspective) mental illness. Borges and I explores the confused identity of Borges the writer and Borges the man. Other essays are less biographical, and reveal his deep fascination with the thoughts and ideas of other writers, especially Homer, Dante, Plato, Coleridge, and Cervantes.

Dreamtigers is evenly divided between prose and poetry. Borges began his literary career as a poet and only gradually moved to prose. Amazingly, his poetry is as remarkable as his prose. Many poems reflect his vast knowledge and interests - the inevitable passage of time, the game of chess, mirrors, Anglo-Saxon grammar, and Ariosto and the Arabs. Others are more biographical, often touching on themes that were also subjects of essays. The poetic translation by Harold Morland is excellent.

I give this book 4 stars because I honestly don't feel that it's his best collection. That honor would go to his collection of short stories entitled, THE BOOK OF SAND. LABYRINTHS comes in a close second or third. But for the beginning Borges reader, this is an EXCELLENT place to start. The book is divided into two primary parts: Borges's parables and super-short stories; and his poems. There's nothing over three pages long in here, except the introduction. Naturally, I found lots of quotable lines and paragraphs in this work. The translation is very good, too. It definitely sounds like Borges, and the tranlators even manage to get some of his poems to rhyme while still getting across that Borgesian feeling. You'd almost think that all of this stuff was written in English to begin with. Assuming you haven't read Borges, he's very intellectual, knows lots about history and books, and loves to write on the subjects of tigers, yellow, blindness, Dante, Martin Fierro, and *the other Borges*. Hope you like this book.

This is supposedly the book that Borges thought his most intimate and personal. Each small story, sketch, parable, poem provides insight into the imagination of one of the great literary creators of all time. His ability to condense into a few lines or paragraphs - worlds of theme and question are unmatched except by his holy predecessor Kafka.
'El Hacedor' 'The Maker' the title - story is of course who Homer and Shakespeare and Borges are and are not. In Borges perhaps most famous essay- story- reflection- poem 'Borges and I' he considers the relationship between the person he is , and the name he has become- and he playfully puts down the legend while understanding it is already confounded with the real passing Borges.
To read this work and his work is to come alive to new possibilies in Literature in Imagination and in Life.
A true creation is a great gift of life.
Borges gives us Borges and much much more besides.

"... he thought that the rose was to be found in its own eternity and not in his words; and that we may mention or allude to a thing, but not express it."

After enjoying a few of Borges' short stories, I wanted to read more of him. Dreamtigers was a compulsive buy last week when Andy and I went to Barnes and Noble just as it was about to close. I usually spend a significant amount of time researching and deliberating over a book before purchasing it, but this slim volume immediately caught my eye. Mortimer J. Adler called Dreamtigers "one of the literary masterpieces of the twentieth century," and it is said to be Borges' most personal work.

The book is composed of poetry and short prose sketches (other reviews have called them "parables"). Though these pieces are on a variety of topics, from toenails to Shakespeare, they are unified by threads of Borges' insight. Borges treats this book as a kind of sketchbook illustrating his own philosophical thoughts: time, human nature, and perceptions of self are recurring topics. He also uses this book as an opportunity to engage in dialogues with the masters--comparisons between Homer's blindness and his own failing sight are made, and he also devotes several pieces to Shakespeare and Don Quixote.

I really enjoyed this book, and I'm glad I read it. I'm excited to read more Borges, in particular his master work Ficciones. The prose pieces in Dreamtigers were phenomenal. The poems were interesting as well, but did not illicit the same breathless response. This is when I wish I could read Spanish fluently, as I suspect the poems are better in the original language. The translator kept rhyming schemes intact, and I suspect that this might at times weakened the verse.

At only 96 pages, this is not a long book. That does not mean, however, that it is a light read. What strikes me most about Borges is his ability to pack so much into a single sentence. Every sentence is needed, every sentence has a purpose. The book might be small but it is certainly dense and will have you asking questions long after you finish it.