THE INVENTION OF MOREL AND THE PATTERN IN THE SKY

by Adolfo Bioy asares ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

In his introduction the Argentinian poet Borges claims that modern literature has all but renounced the adventure story as a genre, along with its trick of a good, tight plot, with an exception, Borges writes, of his countryman who wrote the novella and six short stories translated in this book. Adventure and fantasy, the subtle blending of symbol and supernatural on a well-made tale--A.B.C. (the author's convenient initials) makes his mark somewhere in the vicinity of Edgar Allen Poe and more recent science fictional works of carefully ""reasoned imagination."" A fugitive on an uninhabited ocean island discovers ""the invention of Morel,"" a machine that records human beings and reproduces their living images over and over in the events of one eternal week. Several of the short stories also deal with a sense of displaced time and space--an eternity where everything is simultaneous, or where identical worlds coexist in different temporal spheres. All narrated in the-first person, the human mind is progenitor and culprit in these fantastic tales that convince and absorb by their seeming lack of fantasy--tales simply told of phenomena that become suddenly very real. Masterful work in the nether regions of literature.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: University of Texas

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1964

Categories: FICTION