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Borges: A Life (1996)

by James Woodall

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1562173,875 (3.46)4
This is the first posthumous biography of the great Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges. James Woodall has interviewed Borges' remaining friends and family including his sister, now in her nineties and Maria Kodama, whom Borges married in 1986.
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Showing 3 of 3
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 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. ( )
  tuckerresearch | Sep 25, 2010 |
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. ( )
  CarlosMcRey | May 3, 2008 |
found today 8/2/2013 1 of 20 books for $10
  velvetink | Mar 31, 2013 |
Showing 3 of 3
Woodalls Buch liest sich wie ein wissenschaftlicher Lexikon-Artikel über mehr als 300 Seiten. Er referiert über Namen, Daten, Orte. Sein Text erscheint fragmentarisch und blutleer, vielleicht wegen der Vermeidung jeglicher Narration, genauso parodierte Borges wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, die er oft von Absurdem handeln ließ. Es scheint fast, als parodiere Borges sich hier selbst.
 
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This is the first posthumous biography of the great Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges. James Woodall has interviewed Borges' remaining friends and family including his sister, now in her nineties and Maria Kodama, whom Borges married in 1986.

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