Dino Buzzati: The Seven Messengers

[Heteronym]

Before Borges recommended me Dino Buzzati, I read The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily, a delightful children’s book about a bear king who leads his army to invade the world of the wicked humans. It was pure magic, especially because it contained Buzzati’s amazing illustrations.

Then I read one of his short-story collections and liked it very much too. And now I’ve read a second collection, The Seven Messengers, which presents a beautiful worldview in which the mundane and the incredible often mix.

There are Kafkaesque tales: in one a prince travels for years without reaching limits of his kingdom. There are parodies of old myths: a modern-day group of hunters set out to kill the last dragon, a decrepit creature that can hardly defend itself anymore. Many are purely magical: dead people return to see their loved ones one last time before leaving with Death; a young boy has his first communion without confessing a mortal sin: then he dies and waits in dread the decision of going to Heaven or Hell. Others simply explore the absurdity of life, written in a beautiful, clear prose.

Some people have strangely compared Buzzati to Borges: I myself fail to see the similarities. Borges is all about big abstract ideas. Buzzati, like most writers, loves characters and feelings. He's like Italo Calvino, José Saramago and Gabriel García Márquez, a writer who, unhappy with the dreary world around him, reinvents it full of magic and wonder.

[cuchulain]

I've read some of his short stories and liked them a lot.

Also read a wonderful novel by Buzzati:

The Tartar Steppes. Highly recommend it.