Jay Parini

In this evocative work of what the author in his Afterword calls ‘autofiction’ or ‘a kind of novelised memoir’, Jay Parini takes us back fifty years, when he fled the United States for Scotland. He was in frantic flight from the Vietnam War and desperately in search of his adult life. There, through unlikely circumstances, he met famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges. Borges was in his seventies, blind and frail. Parini was asked to look after him while his translator was unexpectedly called away. When Borges heard that Parini owned a 1957 Morris Minor, he declared a long-held wish to visit the Scottish Highlands, where he hoped to meet a man in Inverness who was interested in Anglo-Saxon riddles. As they travelled, the charmingly garrulous Borges took Parini on a grand tour of western literature and ideas while promising to teach him about love and poetry. As Borges’s world of labyrinths, mirrors and doubles shimmered into being, their escapades took a surreal turn. Borges and Me is a classic road novel, based on true events. It’s also a magical tour of an era – like our own – in which uncertainties abound, and when – as ever – it’s the young and the old who hear voices and dream dreams.

An Encounter

Borges and Me

Bir Karsilasma

Borges ve Ben

In this evocative work of what the author in his afterword calls “a kindof novelistic memoir,” Jay Parini takes us back fifty years, when he fled the United States for Scotland—in flight from the Vietnam War and desperately in search of his adult life. There, through unlikely circumstances, he meets the famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges. Borges—visiting his translator in Scotland—is in his seventies, blind and frail. When Borges hears that Parini owns a 1957 Morris Minor, he declares a long-held wish to visit the Highlands, where he hopes to meet a man in Inverness who is interested in Anglo-Saxon riddles. As they travel, stopping at various sites of historical interest, the charmingly garrulous Borges takes Parini on a grand tour of Western literature and ideas, while promising to teach him about love and poetry. As Borges’s idiosyncratic world of labyrinths, mirrors, and doubles shimmers into being, their escapades take a surreal turn. Borges and Me is a classic road novel, based on true events. It’s also a magical mystery tour of an era, like our own, in which uncertainties abound, and when—as ever—it’s the young and the old who hear voices and dream dreams.

A Travessia de Benjamim

The acclaimed and now-classic biographical novel of Walter Benjamin's last days--adapted into screenplay by Jay Parini. It is 1940. For the past decade, Walter Benjamin--the German-Jewish critic and philosopher--has been writing his masterpiece in a library in Paris, a city he loves. Now Nazi tanks have overrun the suburbs, and Benjamin is forced to flee. With a battered briefcase that contains his precious manuscript of a thousand handwritten pages, he sets off for the border and is led by chance to a young anti-Nazi who is taking Jews and other refugees over the Pyrenees into Spain, where they may (with luck) make their way to freedom in Portugal or South America. Beloved biographical novelist Jay Parini's thrilling tale of escape is beautifully interwoven with vignettes of Benjamin's complex, cosmopolitan past: his privileged childhood in Berlin, his years with the German Youth Movement, his university days. His close friendship with Gershom Scholem, the eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, and many other well-known artists and intellectuals who were part of Benjamin's intimate circle between the two world wars. Part tragedy, part dark comedy, this sharply realized historical novel tells one of the great and most moving peripheral stories of the Holocaust.

Benjamin's Crossing

Traditional Chinese edition of The Last Station. The novel is about Leo Tolstoy's last year in which he struggled to live by his principles of poverty and chastity while fame, wealth and luxury encroached on his soul. He tried to run away from it all but found himself slowly dying alone. The moVietnamese adaptation starring Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren was released in 2009. In Traditional Chinese. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc.

The Last Station

A New York Times Notable Book Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was among the most important intellectuals of this century: a seminal critic and philosopher. He has, in the past three decades, acquired almost cult status in the academic world. In Benjamin's Crossing, Jay Parini tracks Benjamin through his last, terrible months. The story opens with his desperate flight from Paris, on the heels of the Nazi invasion in 1940. It depicts his various, often tragicomic, attempts to flee France, culminating in his frantic escape over the Pyrenees into Spain. Benjamin's Crossing is a lyrical novel of ideas. It is also a love story dramatizing one of the most moving peripheral episodes of the Holocaust.

A Novel

William Faulkner was a literary genius, and one of America's most important and influential writers. Drawing on previously unavailable sources -- including letters, memoirs, and interviews with Faulkner's daughter and lovers -- Jay Parini has crafted a biography that delves into the mystery of this gifted and troubled writer. His Faulkner is an extremely talented, obsessive artist plagued by alcoholism and a bad marriage who somehow transcends his limitations. Parini weaves the tragedies and triumphs of Faulkner's life in with his novels, serving up a biography that's as engaging as it is insightful.

A Life of William Faulkner

One Matchless Time

Leo Tolstoy

Presents selected essays, diary entries, letters, and addresses produced in the last three decades of the author's life.

The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy

Last Steps

Molly Weigel

Leonard Unger

A. Walton Litz

The four volume set consists of ninety-seven of the pamphlets originally published as the University of Minnesota pamphlets on American writers. Some have been revised and updated.

A Collection of Literary Biographies

American Writers

Lea Bechler

Contains biographical and critical essays on the work of important American writers. Presents scholar-signed essays prepared by experts in the field.

Covers writers who have made significant contributions to British, Irish, and Commonwealth literature from the fourteenth century to the present day. Includes in-depth critical and biographical analysis

Supplement XI

British Writers

Ian Scott-Kilvert

Supplement

Robert Pack

Eight-three poets forge a vision of nature for the post-industrial age.

Contemporary American Nature Poetry

Poems for a Small Planet

Experience New England's landscape and seasons, its cities and towns, its history and people, with 58 poets as your guide.

Contemporary Poetry of New England

Provides critical and biographical essays on English writers from parts of the former British Empire.

World Writers in English

Covers writers who have made significant contributions to British, Irish, and Commonwealth literature from the fourteenth century to the present day. Includes in-depth critical and biographical analysis.

Jay Parini

Books

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