The Invention of Morel (New York Review Books Classics)

What makes you decide to read a book? It does not matter that the book was inspired by Louise Brooks but that could be intriguing enough for a start. It is encouraging when someone like Borges- the fantasist - recommends it. Comparisons to Philip K.Dick or Chesterton are handy, perhaps, as a hint. You may wonder how all of these very different references fit in this slim book. But finally, when you do read it, all those references have to fall away (but perhaps not too far away) and the book must stand on its own. Bioy Casares has created a surprising little marvel. Our hero is escaping the police for an unnamed capital crime, and finds himself on an island (a map is provided) decorated with three pristine buildings on the hill, but otherwise a barely hospitable place of vicious high tides, mosquitoes, swamps, reeds and misery. As you work through this environment, Borges does come to mind, as it seems fantastic, with the imagery that seems a signature of South America genius. You'll find yourself trying to determine whether what he describes is real or his own imaginings. After exploring every cranny of the buildings --and the descriptions remind me of art deco drawings, clean, clear, balanced but at the same time ornate-- he finds one day that the island is suddenly inhabited. Not wanting to be discovered, he skulks around the visitors, drawn especially to the pensive and lovely Faustine and the book slips from Borges to a period mystery, a la Chesterton. His understanding of the situation increases and it becomes more like a science fiction invention (the reference to Philip K Dick)... but still there is more, and when you realize there IS more, it becomes Casares' own novel, and stands on its own. It becomes a meditation on the nature of reality and our inability to separate the appearance from the nature of what is observed, the thin border between our own projections and fact, and even our willingness to consciously live in delusion. Does our hero become insane or is the answer to the mystery the whole answer, and his solution rational? This is a very short book, with twice the atmosphere. It is intriguing even while it feels like it is of its own time (1925 or so). When you finish it (in a day perhaps) you may want to read it again to take the time to notice how Casares has molded so many elements into a coherent story, building dread, curiosity and solutions incredibly cleverly. This is definitely worth your time if you like a book that is bigger than itself.

As soon as I finished this book I started once again from the beginning, connecting the dots in this science fiction epic by Argentinian writer Adolfo Bioy Casares. This novel, which is the most well-known of his works, tells the story of a fugitive on an unusual island from the perspective of his diary. Slowly uncovering the mystique of the island allows for an incredible re-read, which recontextualized all the details laid throughout the plot. Casares’s unique style lends itself perfectly to the diary perspective of the story, as he is well versed in writing short stories, essays, letters, and even works written in collaboration with other great writers such as Jorge Luis Borges. The story incorporates aspects of realism as well as science-fiction, creating a wholly distinctive tale that holds up to this day. Dealing with themes of love, death, isolation, and immortality, this story is great for anyone interested in romantic relationships told from a fresh and fascinating science fiction lens. Incorporating the nature of the self in relation to a romantic partner, as well as that finite romance in the scale of eternity, this novel invokes thought and theory about a myriad of existential topics. All of this and more tackled in only 103 pages! Very much worth a read, and a re-read, and then one more just for good measure.

A good book. Not great, but good. Interesting concept for the era in which it was written. I kept flipping back to the front cover, since I'm fascinated with Louise Brooks as well as the author.

The Invention of Morel was adjudged a perfect work by Jorge Luis Borges, the author's mentor/friend/frequent collaborator. Anybody familiar with the essays and short fiction of Borges can appreciate what it would mean for one of the great masters of world literature to make such a pronouncement. Perhaps part of Borges's appraisal reflects how Adolfo Bioy Casares does indeed share much of his same aesthetic and literary sensibilities (after all, they collaborated on 12 books). More specifically, here are some obvious similarities between the writing of the two authors: * The Invention of Morel is only 100 pages, not too much longer than Borges's longer tales. * Similar to stories like The Circular Ruin and The Aleph, and many, if not most of Borges's other tales, The Invention of Morel deals with more than one level of `reality'. * The language and writing is beautiful (this comes through in English translation). This short novel is more like Borges writing in Doctor Brodie's Report and The Book of Sand, where Borges, for the most part, let go of his more ornate, baroque style. Since a number of people have made more general comments about this novel, for the purpose of this review, I will focus on one aspect of this work: the relationship between the novel and the author's and our experience of film and television. The 1920s are the heyday of silent films. The first commercially successful sound film, The Jazz Singer, was released in 1929. Black and White 1940s TV was as raw as raw can be - just look at those 1949 TV shows on You Tube. In 1940 (the year The Invention of Morel was published) ideas about what would become TV where `in the air'; what really had a grip on people's imagination in the 1920s and 1930s was film, first silent film then sound film. So, one can imagine a sensitive, imaginative literary artist like Adolfo Bioy Casares (born 1914) experiencing silent film in the 1920s as a boy and then sound films as a teenager and young man. One thing that makes The Invention of Morel so compelling is just how much of what the narrator and others in the novel experience is parallel to the reader's experience of a world saturated with films and TV and now, the virtual reality of the computer age. Here are a number of quotes from the novel coupled with my reflections: "They are at the top of the hill, while I am far below. From here they look like a race of giants . . ." (page 12) ---- Darn, if this wasn't my exact experience when I went to my first movie. I was so overwhelmed by the race of giants `up there' on the screen, I fled from the theater minutes after the movie started. "I saw the same room duplicated eight times in eight directions as if it were reflected in mirror." (page 18) --- Again, darn. I recall my almost disbelief when, as a kid, I saw the same image repeated a dozen times when I first saw all those TVs turned to the same station in a department store. There was something freaky about the exact movement and image repeated on all those sets. "I went back to see her the next afternoon, and the next. She was there, and her presence began to take on the quality of a miracle." (page 25) How many teenagers, young men and women and even older adults have fallen in love with a movie star and go back to the movies to see their loved one the next night and the next? " . . . words and movements of Faustine and the bearded man coincided with those of a week ago. The atrocious eternal return." (page 41) In a way, isn't that the world of movies - the same exact people doing exactly the same thing night after night up there on the screen. Live performances and live theater doesn't even come close to the movie's eternal return. " . . . horrified by Faustine, who was so close to me, actually might be on another planet." (page 53) How many men and women who have fallen in love with a star in a film or on a TV show where they are so close they can press their hands against the star's face (the TV screen) come to realize their emotions and feelings are for a being a universe away, far beyond their actual touch. ""Tea for Two" and "Valencia" persisted until after dawn." (page 62) Most appropriate! Films and TV thrive on easy-to-remember songs and jingles. "I began to search for waves and vibrations that had previously been unattainable, to devise instruments to receive and transmit them." (page 69). It is as if the author were touching into the collective unconscious desire in 1940 to expand film in different ways, one way being what would become TV. " I was certain that my images of persons would lack consciousness of themselves (like the characters in a motion picture)." (page 70) This is part of a 3+ page reflection by Morel. There is a lot here. One reflection: how many people have sacrificed their flesh-and-blood existential reality to make it as a star up there on the silver screen? What happens to the soul of the people in a city (Los Angeles, for example) when the city is taken over by an entire industry dedicated to producing films and shows populated by stars? I recall a quote from the main character in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance when he goes into a roadside diner and can't get the waitress's attention because she is watching TV. He says, "I don't exist since I'm not on TV."

This is a very short novel which presents a mysterious situation that, the first time I read it, I tried so hard to work out – how is this happening? – without success. When the author revealed the solution, or twist, it was so brilliant that I may have squealed aloud. This is a book I return to every few years, but also regularly purchase as a gift. And there is yet to be one disappointed recipient.

I don't usually post Amazon reviews, but more people should know about this book. Imagine a crafty, short sci-fi story with a narrator who is hardly the pinnacle of charisma, wit, or reliability, but who manages in a short tale to change the way you think about what it means to be in contact with another human, about photography, about death and the love of life. The translation reads superbly as well.

After years of hunting for this all time classic finally a superb edition from NYRB Books. Prologue by the master, Jorge Luis Borges.

A man chronicles his strange journey while marooned on an island with strange machinery in his diary. As he obsessively dissects the island with his considerable perception to understanding what is happening, he, in turn, ends up disassembling and learning more about himself. This book is masterful in its thematic throughline. I have always been fascinated with perspective and perception. Without feedback from other people, we become disturbingly reliant on motivated thinking. It is so crucial to a persons' identity that we interact with other people; without it we never really know ourselves at all. How much of what we see is actually just a projection of ourselves? Without any means of distinction, reality takes on an unknowable Otherness. With the stream of consciousness that fits very well with a diary written in blissful, straightforward prose, the mind of the man cultivates almost uncanny anticipation of the readers’ thoughts. Even as he does something absurd, or has not taken something crucial into account, or is overly cruel in his observations—you have only to turn the page and discover he himself knows this and wrestles with the same problem. It’s also more frenetic than a modern thriller, almost genre-bending as our man desperately tries to make sense of the goings-on. And as such, the reader establishes synchronicity with the story as it unfolds. Something of a feat given how old the text is. It still feels fresh and original and regards a human experience that will forever be, (ironically, if you’ve read it), timeless. It made me think about more than that. But any more would be considerable spoilers and this is a book with a reading experience where the less you know, the better, in my opinion.

a rather quick read. you're thrown into the story and don't know what's happening or what's real anymore. is faustine real? is the narrator real? is he a stalker or the stalked? why is he so scared of others that he prefers to hide in the bushes? or is it all just a plan to get closer to the people in the museum? questions over questions that will be answered shortly (it only has 103 pages). i really enjoyed this. although i have to say that after the "big reveal" the story fell a little flat. but the book will still give you chills.