Reading list for trip to Buenos Aires?
March 10, 2011 3:41 AM Subscribe
Do you know Buenos Aires? Have you read something - a book, author, novel - that truly captured the city for you? We are taking our first trip to Buenos Aires in the next couple of months and I'm looking for books to read that are particularly Argentinian or somehow reveal aspects of the city, its history, people and/or culture that aren't covered in the Frommer's.
Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentinian short story writer/poet/essayist, and some of his work deals specifically with Buenos Aires, or at the very least, his fantastical interpretation of it. Having read many of his stories and poems, I imagine I would be unable to visit the city without seeing it through the filter of his work, which, in my opinion, is not in any way a negative thing.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:27 AM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Ghidorah at 7:27 AM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]
The Ministry of Special Cases is sad and probably not what you're looking for, but I do think it captures an essential quality of Buenos Aires. (At least, the BA I knew when I studied there in 1997 still held some of the sadness and paranoia of the Dirty War.) And anyway, it is a phenomenal book.
posted by semacd at 9:39 AM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by semacd at 9:39 AM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]
I came in here to suggest The Ministry of Special Cases (already up there) and was reminded of Argentina on Two Steaks a Day. You can't go wrong with those. Ministry is indeed not the happiest story you could read, but it's a true and not yet forgotten part of the city's history.
posted by whatzit at 9:43 AM on March 10, 2011
posted by whatzit at 9:43 AM on March 10, 2011
I came in to mention Borges.
The Motorcycle Diaries and The Old Patagonian Express don't take place entirely in Buenos Aires, but they're great travel accounts about south America with an Argentinian angle.
posted by Sara C. at 10:41 AM on March 10, 2011
The Motorcycle Diaries and The Old Patagonian Express don't take place entirely in Buenos Aires, but they're great travel accounts about south America with an Argentinian angle.
posted by Sara C. at 10:41 AM on March 10, 2011
Borges is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Buenos Aires.
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko at 10:43 AM on March 10, 2011
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko at 10:43 AM on March 10, 2011
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(There's an FPP for the article too.)
posted by oh yeah! at 5:29 AM on March 10, 2011