The 305 Greatest Books - #200: Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Ficciones (AKA Fictions, AKA Collected Fictions) by Jorge Luis Borges. The book can be found on the Norwegian Book List.

Initially, I had a rather difficult time trying to find the proper collection for my reading list. The book is listed as "Collected Fictions" on the Norwegian Book List. However, I can not find any book by Jorge Luis Borges with that specific title. After some internet sleuthing, I have come to the conclusion that it refers to Fictions, or Ficciones, as per the title of the book I read. This book is a compilation of two short story compilations by Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths and Artifices, totaling 17 short stories. I have a hard time reviewing short stories because some could be fantastic and others terrible, and really, they often have no correlation between each other. I also don't usually like short story collections because I don't have enough time to get into the story. It does take my brain some time to get accustomed to the writing style of the author and where the story is going before I am comfortable enough with the story to give it the attention it deserves, neither of which I usually get with a short story. With that being my caveat, on to the total review. Borges was an Argentinean short story writer who primarily wrote in Spanish, however I am led to believe that the English language itself and writings in English greatly influenced his work. I am surprised that his writings were not originally in English because typically translations tend to smooth over the language differences, choosing simpler, more common words, when translating into English. However, these translations are so rich in the language used that I can't even comprehend the translation abilities of the translator. I am certain Borges did have a hand in the translations, though, since he was proficient in both. Most of the stories in the first collection, The Garden of Forking Paths, had a very similar theme. Most were based on some made up book. Some of the stories were reviews of these made up books, others were entire mythological quests to discover these made up books about made up civilizations. And while I greatly enjoyed these stories, I definitely felt some of them were better than others. "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" stands apart as a marvelous story about a mythical, perhaps alien, culture that only has a few books scattered across the globe describing this place that I would love to hear more about. "The Babylon Lottery" also had me entranced because it definitely seemed like a precursor to Squid Game. In the second volume, Artifices, Borges branched out a bit more. In this one though he seemed to get more religious, or at least he became more fascinated with the Name of God, which came up in at least three separate stories. And while I did not get into these stories as much as the ones from the first collection, I did rather like "Death and the Compass" and was rather surprised at the twist ending. Overall, while I did enjoy them, and I thought the language, while it could be heavy at times, was beautiful, I did not enjoy all of them enough to recommend them to my list. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #199: Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

I should note that this book is from the BBC's Big Read list, which is a compilation of survey responses across the UK asking for the general public's favorite novels during 2003. With that in mind, there are many books which would seem out of place on any other "100 Greatest Books" lists, this one included. With that being said, Bridget Jones's Diary was so much fun. I laughed quite a bit and generally enjoyed it. It was far from taxing to read and I breezed through it. It turned out to be the perfect beach read on my vacation. It is also very far from "higher lit" that I would equate with the 100 Greatest Books. But it is just simply a fun book to read. I was invested in Brigit's year and I loved the setup of the diary format throughout the year. The book also lends itself perfectly to being made into a movie, hence the reason I am not surprised whatsoever that it was made into a very popular movie (however I have not seen it at this point in time). Overall, it was just an easy to read, fun book, where you could turn off your brain and enjoy the drama on the page. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #198: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. The book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

Cold Comfort Farm was a rather surprising story. The plot follows Flora Poste, a recently orphaned twenty-year-old, who was left with a modest income from her parents. She decides she is going to lean on some of her ample family that she has for lodging, and ends up writing to many of them. She eventually decides to board with the Starkadder family at Cold Comfort Farm. And a more redneck variety of country bumkins I have rarely seen in literature. I would say this story has a white savior problem, but with the majority of the redneck family being white, they more have a rich cousin savior problem. Flora swoops in and really makes it her goal to fix everything in the farm and get it all sorted out before eventually flying off into the sunset (almost literally). The general premise of the story makes it seem insufferable, however, it is hilarious. While the majority of the story is clearly presented tongue firmly in cheek, the author gives us enough nods to know that she is indeed being farcical about the whole thing. And Stella Gibbons has a tremendous knack at sentences that turn her prose into a work of art in many instances. He descriptive terminology, analogies, and metaphors creates such a palette, that regardless with how insufferable many of the characters are, I am having a downright enjoyable time reading them. And the book is funny, often times laugh out loud so, further emphasizing the farcical narrative of the whole thing. If there is one issue I have with the story, it is the loose plot threads that are by no means insignificant in my opinion. Stella starts off the story with several reasons and mysteries for Flora to go to the farm, however by the end of the story few of those reasons are clarified or even explained. One is hinted at, however the others Flora outright says, "well I guess I'll never know". What was in the woodshed Stella!?!?! What was in the woodshed????? (I do hope her tombstone describes what was in the woodshed). Overall, I do recommend this one because it is short (always a plus), easy to read, enjoyable, and very well written. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #197: The Godfather by Mario Puzo

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Godfather by Mario Puzo. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

The Godfather is most notably known as the book that the award winning movie is based off of. And while I have seen the movie, and Part 2, I have not seen them in a very long time, and I could not tell you what parts of the book were in the movie, or not, or even if they differed at all. The book though was a lightning fast read. I was dialed in for the whole thing and could not put it down. And while that would seem like an instant recommend, I did have some grave concerns about the book. The story follows the Corleone family, specifically Don Corleone, who is the Godfather to this Sicilian crime family. The story bounces all over the place from Don's early childhood, to his later retirement, and everything in between. We also follow along with some of his children and godchildren, at least when they help propel the story forward. And while I did enjoy the story, I mean who doesn't love a good mafia story every now and again, my biggest gripe is with the women in the story. They were all written to be slapped or beaten around and to obey their husbands without question. When any of them deviated from this narrative, the men were actually forced to account, and they shouldered with the blame of what "their women" did. Most of this treatment though was front loaded in the book, so it felt like a steep drop off into uncomfortable territory. While the women characters mostly vanished later on in the book, with a few notable examples, none escaped the derogatory treatment. And so that is why, despite my generally enjoying the book, and have a nice time reading it, it does not stand up to today's standards, so I can't recommend it. My vague recollection of the movie though is that it generally fixed these problems and so I do want to go back and compare notes between the two. 

Corollary - After watching both The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2, I have found that reading novel did greatly enhance the movies. There are so many minor plot threads, or other tidbits of information, that the movie brings up and just drops, come out of nowhere, or are just background little tidbits, that are explained in detail within the book. For that reason I would recommend it.

The 305 Greatest Books - #196: Naughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Naughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman. The book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

This was an interesting read. It is one of the few YA (Young Adult) books on my list and being released in 2001, it is one of the most recent books to be on any of the lists (since I compiled my lists in ~2005). And being on the BBC's The Big Read, which was a search in April of 2003 for the "nation's best-loved novel", it likely made the list because it is a well written story that was prominent at the time. That doesn't mean it wasn't good though, and that it told a remarkable story. The premise of the story is a "what-if" universe where the races between white and Black people where flip-flopped in society. Where white skinned people are the fairly recently unslaved people and black skinned people are the ruling class of society. In this society the Black members are the Crosses, in references to Christianity, and the white members are Naughts, i.e. zeroes or o's, like a tic-tac-toe board. And while it felt like Blackman just flip-flopped the stereotypes of each society at first, the story takes on some interesting and well thought out "what-if" scenarios. Despite being what could be considered a Romeo and Juliet-esk story set within this universe and a YA novel on top of that, there were far more instances of outright suicide than I was anticipating, including teen suicide. There were also instances of terrorization, bombings, and just plain ole murder. It was an intense book. Overall the book is a fast read and it is the first book in a long time for me that had me coming back for more, reading more than my allotted amount each night because I had to find out what happened next. I loved it and I'm curious to see where the story goes from here (because there are several more in the series, although this book wraps up nicely at the end). I'm adding it to my recommended book list.