Wyatt’s Reviews > Ficciones > Status Update

Oof, you might be alone in this one, sorry! But more seriously, Borges is known to be challenging. He's one of the last people I would recommend pushing through if you aren't feeling it; you'll only get more lost in the labyrinth that is his narrative. One of my favorite aspects of his work is how he makes his fiction feel like nonfiction, adding this whole extra layer that makes you question what's real and what isn't. But if you're not connecting with his work, that clinical, deliberate style could be what's pushing you away.

My favorite story of his is "The Circular Ruins." It's only four pages and it's genius: the passion, the brilliant structure, the occult symbolism, the mood. To me, he's a legend. Maybe try reading him again in a few years and you'll get something different from his work. Or maybe you won't, who knows!

No suggestions (sorry) but I felt the same. I only made it through a few stories even after switching to the English translation in a last ditch effort to finish the book. My hazy impression several years later is of a style so cerebral it’s almost inhuman, intentionally lost in minutiae and mind games so that nothing has to be felt, merely contemplated. Evasively bloodless in other words. It’s not for me.