My oh my. Extremely inventive, fascinating story but one that, in the end, proved just a little too confusing for me. The writing is not the attraction, it’s the story. I’m reading more of his stories, now, from La Trama Celeste and have to say he’s an acquired taste. And I’m not sure how much to my own particular taste he is. (I say this having read the stories in A Russian Doll and enjoyed them a great deal.) ( )

Morel- It took me about two years, but I finally got ahold of a copy of IOM. There was quite a bit of hype associated w the book. As I got about 2/3 of the way through the story, I was a bit disgusted and ready to write it off as over enthusiastic fans pumping up their favorite genre. I also had theories as to what was actually happening in the book, along w random thoughts about "Lost" that were appearing in my mind.

Upon finishing the novel, I am ready to join the legion of admirers. The concept of recording a week of your life and running it on a never ending reel has some very interesting possibilities. I especially like how the main character inserted himself into the film and interacted w his amor. I will eventually reread the story and pick up some of the nuances that I missed the first time. The writing reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

short stories:
In Memory of Pauline
The Future Kings
The Idol
The Celestial Plot
The Other Labyrinth
The Perjury of the Snow ( )

The narrator of this story has escaped some sort of pursuit and inhabits a small, abandoned island. A group of visitors appears one day sending him into hiding. He watches their routine comings and goings and develops a strong attraction to one of them. This beautiful woman is often seen in the company of the man named "Morel." Without revealing his presence, he tries to discover how and why his mysterious visitors made their sudden appearance. As he proceeds, he falls more in love with the unattainable women.The story is full of ideas and concepts that must have been strange and extraordinary for 1940 when they were written. They're almost obvious now that they've appeared in primetime TV shows. I won't get more specific than that.The other stories are a mix of mystery, horror, and science fiction. I can't say I fully understood all of them. Maybe it was the South American writing style, the translation, or the authors intent. I dumbed them down in my mind to fit into my remembrance of The Twilight Zone series format and that worked for me.This particular 1961 edition is out of print which is too bad. I enjoyed the illustrations, the typography, and the size and weight. The "look and feel" as they say for software? That was about the time I discovered the science fiction section of the library so it must have kindled happy memories. Uh, I do like ebooks too though.My local library had to get this book for me through an interlibrary loan. I'm glad they did. ( )

The narrator of this story has escaped some sort of pursuit and inhabits a small, abandoned island. A group of visitors appears one day sending him into hiding. He watches their routine comings and goings and develops a strong attraction to one of them. This beautiful woman is often seen in the company of the man named "Morel." Without revealing his presence, he tries to discover how and why his mysterious visitors made their sudden appearance. As he proceeds, he falls more in love with the unattainable women.The story is full of ideas and concepts that must have been strange and extraordinary for 1940 when they were written. They're almost obvious now that they've appeared in primetime TV shows. I won't get more specific than that.The other stories are a mix of mystery, horror, and science fiction. I can't say I fully understood all of them. Maybe it was the South American writing style, the translation, or the authors intent. I dumbed them down in my mind to fit into my remembrance of The Twilight Zone series format and that worked for me.This particular 1961 edition is out of print which is too bad. I enjoyed the illustrations, the typography, and the size and weight. The "look and feel" as they say for software? That was about the time I discovered the science fiction section of the library so it must have kindled happy memories. Uh, I do like ebooks too though.My local library had to get this book for me through an interlibrary loan. I'm glad they did. ( )

A fantastic collection of stories from the famous Argentinian writer and sometime collaborator of Jorge Luis Borges (I personally like his writing better than that of Borges). The title story of the collection, THE INVENTION OF MOREL, is a tale of fantasy and even terror, as a man on an island comes to the realization that all of the people he sees are recordings (three-dimensional, with sound and even smell), but indistinguishable from reality. ( )