Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space (review)

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 235 passions, insecurities, and irony of a particular human who happened to be extremely gifted in the art of language. An Argentine weekly magazine photo contributes significantly to the developing image in readers' minds. It is that of Borges leaning on the arm of his working partner, confidant, and first and foremost, friend. The Lesson ofthe Master utilizes the credibility provided by this connection and in the meantime, also manages to objectively analyze major themes associated with Borges's work as well as to dispel any longstanding popular assumptions. Beyond the achievements of communicating a camaraderie with, and comprehensive overview of, an author's published and unpublished life works, di Giovanni constructs the perception of a shared effort between himself and Borges that carries equal weight in both parties' contributions . By means of a humbling foreword, a clarifying afterword and a translator's guide that redefines the art of translation as a "craft," we are led through the creative process that gave birth to a relatively small body of work. The worldwide fame derived from a publication of little more than fifty short stories demands inquisition from even the most disinterested literary audience . However, readers are fortunate to have di Giovanni do the inquiring for them. Commonly known themes covered in most literary analyses of Borges's work are those that have to do with a dilemma of identity. Di Giovanni obligingly scans through "The Double," explored in The Book of Imaginary Beings ; the projection of an alter ego, carried out in Juan Dahlmann's character in "The South"; the divided self created from inward dissatisfaction , found in a tale called "The Other"; and the dichotomy ofthe private and public self seen in the well-known "Borges y yo." Though these philosophical themes are significant to understanding Borges's work and personal times of crises, di Giovanni is able to bring relevant insight to the double task of interpreting his friend's art and characterizing the process through which he created it. Essentially, di Giovanni claims that Borges's technique of composition was not a systematic approach, but rather a more disjointed path similar to his Uterary characters' search of self. The Lesson of the Master also entertains readers with one of Borges's most subversive hallmarks: "his seriously playful misappropriation of scholarly sources." How can this author get away with such an offense? Because, di Giovanni tells us, his interpreters eagerly intellectualize and theorize with respect to another hallmark: Borges's incorporation of Eastern and Western culture. Keeping this in mind, the reader will delight in knowing this secret and smirk at the mystifying claims. Trying to write about a man's essence, this is the goal of The Lesson of a Master. Just as Borges the biographer wanted to capture eternity through timeless description in Evaristo Carriego, Norman di Giovanni, the biographer, wants to demystify the work of the former through closure of an imaginary gap between over interpretation and the actual reality of parody in Borges's work and personal life. If reading audiences enjoy the 19th and 20th century work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walt Whitman, WiUiam Faulkner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc. or appreciate the respect berween two men that grows out of a deep friendship, then they wiU enjoy the experience of reading The Lesson ofthe Master. Although Jorge Luis Borges might be compared with his contemporary writers, Norman di Giovanni keeps no secret in declaring that the Argentine "National Treasure" has "always achieved more in one or two pages than any other writer of our age" (59). The time spent with the "treasure" on his arm attests to such a claim. Ellen Johnson The University of Arizona Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space Duke University Press, 2004 Edited by Daniel J. Walkowitz and Lisa Maya Knauer On September 28,2005, New York governor George Pataki cancelled plans for a proposed Freedom Center, a museum that was to be built 236 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies at the site of die former World Trade Center. His decision—taken after intense lobbying by numerous families of 9/11 victims, who clamored to "take back the...