James Woodall (1)

A few weeks after I finished a biography of Borges, I found this one at a used book store with the exact same title. Serendipitous, no? So I had to buy it. I think Borges would have enjoyed it, somehow. Written in 1997, the first book I read was written in 2004, it seems to suffer from a lack of sources, a lack of cooperation from Borges's widow, and the fact that Borges has seen new life and new translations through Penguin (the newer biography seems an outgrowth of this Penguin-Kodama show more collaboration).

But, to the book. It is amazing to that two biographies on the same person can differ so much. The Williamson biography presents Borges's output as the outgrowth of his personal relationships: mother, father, Bioy, loves (spurned and imagined), ancestry, etc. Here, Woodall presents his literature more as an outgrowth of his bookish nature, a view I find more appealing. Still, Williamson made the excellent case that Borges's odd relationship with Norah Lange was the central unrequited love of his life -- here Woodall mentions her, in passing, three times! Though this book is about one hundred fifty pages shorter, Woodall interprets the stories a bit more like a critic than Williamson, which is a plus. He also treats Borges as poet more often than Williamson. The book ends rather abruptly, however, swiftly jumping through the 1980s, and giving short shrift to Maria Kodama. He also calls some late Borges stories "sub-Borgesian," which, I think, is an insult, as some of the latter stories are just as good as his 1940s output. This I wonder about.

In the end, I don't know which biography is the better. Thus, I give them both four stars. show less

This concise Kindle Single would have been good prep for my interview with Sid Bernstein. However, I came across this now doing research for my interview anthology and I came across this and got to read it now. The author had a great idea to add to the Beatles bookshelf: background and details using the historic Shea Stadium concert setlist. This does a good job of a brisk telling of the Beatles during that pivotal time cresting in their concert-giving career and pre-LSD, pot.

Supplementary show more material includes an annotated Beatles bibliography as a guide to Beatles scholarship. show less

It's hard to talk about this book without mentioning Williamson's "Borges: A Life." I think this makes for a better introduction to Borges' life. It's a short work and sticks mainly to the bare facts of biography and literary career instead of dwelling heavily on some of the sexual/Freudian territory that Williamson spends a lot of time on. Recommended for anyone seeking to know more about Borges, but I think, whatever its flaws, Williamson's is a stronger work.

found today 8/2/2013 1 of 20 books for $10