Reviews and Comments

The thing I found most enthralling about this biography of Borges, is also what gave me pause: the intense and assured focus on Borges' inner life and its influence on his writing. Williamson spins a compelling narrative about the how the traumas, and occasional triumphs, of Borges personal life were the driving force behind the triumphs, and occasional traumas, of his public life as an author, poet, and scholar. The book delves deep into the formative experiences of his life, from isolated in-home education and the wonder of his father's library, the pressure of his storied patrician familial background and his mother's expectations, to his struggle's with romantic love and his own insecurities about being worthy of it. Williamson's depiction of Borges channeling those feelings into writing is persuasive and effortless, almost always letting the actions and creative works speak for themselves in showing their relationship.

And yet...while I found no reason to doubt Williamson's psychological assessment of Borges, I found myself wondering about the veracity claims about his mental state and motivations. Knowing my own feelings hard enough...I don't know how I could ever be as certain of another human being's mental and emotional state as Williamson is of Borges'.

And yet...surely Borges would hear my argument and laugh and assure me, that all history, particularly all biography, is itself a form fiction; a tale told a particular way to convey a meaning. As Williamson shows very effectively, his writing is littered with biographical details drawn from his own life and of shelves of those around him. Borges intentionally blurred the line between fiction and history so often, that it feels fitting that this biography would take the form of a well crafted narrative that compels you, and makes you want to believe.

I only just barely recognized Golda Mier's name when I started this as part of a book club, but I was absolutely gripped through all of the almost 900 pages of her life. Born in Kyiv in Tsarist Russia, as a child she moving with her family to Milwaukee to escape anti-Semitism and pogroms. Coming of age in America, she was deeply impact by the American labor movement of the 1910's, and she carried those socialist ideals with her when she emigrated to Palestine to become a settler and live on a kibbutz. Through her life is told the story of the creation of the state of Israel, from it's political struggles under English colonial rule, to it's attempts to construct a new government that could keep the promise to the millions of immigrants, to it's seemingly endless wars with neighboring countries. Klagsburn does a wonderful job of telling the story with Golda as the lead character without silencing the voices of those around her, and those opposed to her, both within and outside of Israel.