Outside of Argentina, Macedonio Fernandez (1874 – 1952) is famous principally for his role as mentor to Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986). Fernandez, a generation older than Borges, was born into wealth, and studied law with Borges’ father, with whom he became close friends. Both were anarchists, and both were interested in the philosophies of Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and especially William James. The younger Borges completed his education in Switzerland in 1921 and returned to Argentina an impressionable, upstart Imagist poet. Once back, he resumed his friendship with Fernandez. Fernandez was a paradoxical figure, notoriously hermetic and yet a famed conversationalist. With Borges’ support he positioned himself in opposition to the resident establishment modernist figure of Leopoldo Lugones and assumed the role of figurehead of an entire generation of Argentinian writers. He even, with the support of his literary acolytes, waged two quixotic campaigns for the Argentinian presidency. In the late 20s, however, Borges changed tack: he renounced much of his previous output, and began to deny the quality and importance of Fernandez’s work, and its influence on his own mature works. Throughout his life Fernandez had published infrequently and reluctantly, and with the withdrawal of Borges support Fernandez largely slipped through the fingers of the critical establishment for decades. Lately, however, there has been a critical reevaluation. Fernandez’s writings, after all, display many of the dominant traits that came to define Borges’ works, and it was in Fernandez’s company that Borges grew into maturity as a writer. This, the first English language translation of Fernandez’s masterpiece, The Museum of Eterna’s Novel, is an event of considerable importance. READ MORE
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| The Museum of Eterna’s Novel (the First Good Novel) A novel by Macedonio Fernandez Open Letter, 2010 (first published 1967) 238 pages Reviewed by Mark Molloy |
