“The reality was no doubt much more complex than this summary”. #borges

Having spent a good amount of time in an infinite, never-ending library inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, it was kind of inevitable that I would want to go on and read some of that author’s work. I have been gradually making my way through a beautiful volume of his “Collected Fictions“, translated by Andrew Hurley, and I realised when checking that I was nearly at the end. Only two collections still remained unread, and frankly this seemed like the ideal time to pick them up. The titles are “The Book of Sand” (1975) and “Shakespeare’s Memory” (1983) and although late Borges (he passed away in 1986), they are as powerful as his early works. By this point in his life, Borges was blind and so dictating all of his works. The stories are often short (as are many of his earlier writings) but no less profound and affecting. I’ll look at the collections separately, starting with “Sand”; this contains thirteen stories, each of which is a gem: The Other Ulrikke The Congress There Are More Things…