PARTISAN REVIEW
125
a city, or an era. But Borges's ambition in this book is only to tell
"straightforward stories," even if the artist's hand now and then im–
pulsively answers to the aesthetic requirements of emphasis and fonn.
Modesty is a method of
Doctor Brodie's Report,
and, though his sub–
jects are one or another kind of violence, Borges gives subtlety of tone
and a pleasant, civilized voice to his story collection - in effect, all the
pleasure of an organized fictional entity. The excellent translation, in
which he participated with Thomas di Giovanni, is also an expression
of modesty. As Borges implies, the book is not entirely his.
It
belongs
to Kipling, to Swift, to tricks of memory and art, to a sympathetic
translator, and perhaps to the failing passions of old age: The last is
nonsense, but in such artful qualifications emerges a fascinating edition
of the man - not Saint Borges - witty, disturbing, deft in his "straight–
forward stories."
Leonard Michaels
Richard
~wskyS
new
novel
is
about
humanity.
And
mans
lack
of
it.
,
THE
BARBARIANS
ATTHE
GATES
Richard
BanIM<'y
. .,
ANOVEL
Is it possible to be a good Nazi and a
9()od man? to love, amid depravity and
lust? to be civilized, among barbarians?
to stay sane, in a world gone crazy?
II not, is it at least possible to atone? This
shattering novel answers those questions
brilliantly, as it portrays the crumbling
humanity 01 one man caught in the chaos
01 World War II.
57.95 at all bookstores
An
Atlantic I¥oothly
Press Book
UTILE.BROWN
and
COMPANY
