Monday, May 27, 2013

Jorge Luis Borges

I believe it was a recent Dean Koontz novel that I was reading which mentioned Mr. Borges, so I made note to check out the dude.

Sources said Borges "is the most important Spanish-language writer since Cervantes." So, jeesh, who could overlook that? And I bought the Deluxe Edition of his collected fictions because it was described as: "A marvelous new collection of stories by one of the most remarkable writers of our century." So, again, jeesh! Pretty lofty words for ol' JLB.

I'm about five short stories into it, and I've got to say I'm impressed. I can't really put a finger on why, but he's just different. For instance, I've done a lot of reading on Billy the Kid and seen the television shows and bios, but Borges' four-page essay "The Disinterested Killer Bill Harrigan" encapsulated the life of Billy the Kid better than all the rest combined. And in four pages! So, yeah, the guy is good.

I'm looking forward to reading the other 96 short stories in the collection.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Ace reviews The Monster of Florence

Ace of Spades has a review of a book he’s halfway through (funny to review a book before done, but Ace is a funny guy). Since I’m a fan of murder-mystery-psychopathic-serial-killer fiction and non-fiction, I’m thinking I may have to pick it up: The Monster of Florence.
And then there's the weird subcultures. Here's an example: When I first started reading I wondered, "How the heck can he find so many people (he killed 14, seven different couples) having sex in cars?" Well, there's an answer to that. In Florence, children -- adult children, I mean -- continue living with their parents until they're married. And they marry late. So there is a long period, say from age 17 to 27, when adults have no place of their own, and no sexual privacy, but are still, as you'd imagine, having sex. So it's a widespread tradition that dates -- even among engaged persons -- will end parking on country roads and having sex.