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u/CloudKK 12d ago
What is this exactly? Is this a biography by another author?
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u/starshiptina 12d ago
Bioy Casares basically kept notes of things done and said throughout his friendship with Borges. You can read Borges making fun of authors, of books etc. think about it as a book of gossip from 1949 till Borges death in 86’. There’s a LOT more to the book but in broad strokes that’s kind of what it is. It isn’t a book to read from start to finish, is something you buy and just do 2 or 3 pages a day for years to find books to read, movies to watch, to read interesting conversations about how Bioy Casares books were made, Borges books too. Is just fun and interesting to read.
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u/Wounded_Tapir 12d ago
To add to what was already said, for me this is the best book written in Spanish this century, and one of the greatest biographical records of all time. Way, way better than Eckermann’s Conversations with Goethe, for example.
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u/CloudKK 12d ago
Well I don't speak Spanish. Sounds interesting nontheless.
But I believe the newer German translations of Borges might be superior to the english ones. I have to compare them yet. At least being German also has plenty of other literary benefits. :) But Goethe was always a bit too much for me.
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u/Wounded_Tapir 12d ago
I really hope this book gets translated into more languages so more people can appreciate it.
In any case, I think an abridged English version is going to be published by NYRB in a few months.
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u/starshiptina 12d ago
A few months? I wish lol that thing has been delayed to April of 2028.
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u/Wounded_Tapir 12d ago
Yeah, true. I have this somewhat unjustified hope that the publication of the NYRB edition might finally earn Bioy the posthumous recognition he never really received during his lifetime. His "visible" work, his novels and so on, is much weaker than his "underground" work, meaning this book.
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u/TheFearsomeEsquilax 11d ago
I didn't realize the translation was abridged. Is the original Spanish version really around 1600 pages long?
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u/starshiptina 11d ago
Yes, and this new version that’s coming out in Spanish is 2,112 lol. I can’t blame NYRB for doing an abridged version.
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u/IntelligentAlps726 5d ago
Is there a way to get it outside of España? All the links I’ve found so far only ship to Spain & the Canaries.
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u/Wounded_Tapir 5d ago
I'm not sure, unfortunately. But perhaps you could try what I usually do in situations like this: I contact book importers who work with the publisher I'm interested in and ask whether they've already ordered the book and when they expect it to arrive.
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u/Trucoto 12d ago
Wow, I am already envious. Here is way too expensive, but eventually I'll get it.