These wide-ranging conversations have an open and intimate tone, giving readers a uniquely personal glimpse of one of the most fascinating figures in contemporary world literature. Interviewer Fernando Sorrentino, an Argentinean writer and anthologist, displays literary acumen, sensitivity, urbanity, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Borges' work. (In his prologue, Borges jokes that Sorrentino knows his work "much better than I do.") Borges wanders from nostalgic reminiscence to literary criticism and from philosophical speculation to political pronouncements. His thoughts on literature run the gamut from the Bible and Homer to Hemingway and Cortazar. We learn that Dante is the writer who most impressed Borges, that Borges considered Garcia Lorca to be a "second-rate poet", and that he considered Bioy Casares one of the most important authors of the twentieth century. Along the way, Borges dwells lovingly on his native Buenos Aires.
