Following my encounter with the works of Borges, I read "El Aleph", another mind-bending collection of short stories that are connected by an almost invisible thread of time and life. Unlike "Ficciones" that one could read like a cabinet of mysterious curiosities, "El Aleph" has generally a much more somber tone and leaves more space for philosophical questions than mysteries.

In this collection of seventeen stories, Borges engages with the various topics usual for his works: time, immortality, life and death, doubles, destiny and human nature. The range of genres and settings in this book is so unsettling that somehow every single story feels like the whole book. Unlike "Ficciones", most of "El Aleph" is pretty heavy to read even in those stories that follow a conventional chronological storytelling. Almost nowhere can one find those "shocking" moments at the end of the stories that absolutely flip the meaning of it, and yet the powerful message somehow embeds itself in the brain after finishing the book, almost in a miraculous manner. The uncanny feeling that sometimes brings the stories from "El Aleph" almost to the level of horror is created due to extensive use of real settings and historical events. "Ficciones" (very loosely) could be called a work of fantasy, with a lot of places and persons coming from the imagination of Borges. In contrast, "El Aleph" deals with real life problems and events in such a raw and unapologetic manner that some stories left me very disturbed.

"El Aleph" does not create such obvious labyrinths as "Ficciones", but it still manages to trace the mysteries of a human soul in a no less impressive manner than imaginative labyrinths in "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan". Borges was capable of keeping the balance between the real and the fantastical in such a way that none of the components of the story are solved in the end. While some might argue it is a huge disadvantage for the genre of short story, I find it a possibility to reflect on your own interpretation.

With all the academic, profound structure of "El Aleph" that reminds more of scientific research than a book at some moments, I wish Borges would further explore unconventional narrative forms (lists, epistolary genre, tables), like he did in "Ficciones". The apparently dry but deeply fascinating form of the stories in "El Aleph" creates a solemn and almost ceremonious mood while reading it. In conclusion, this book does not reach for me the level of genial "Ficciones", yet still provides a huge amount of thoughts and insights to reflect on and deserves its title of one of the best collections of short stories by this author.