The Garden of Forking Paths
Metadata
- Media: #shortstory
- Author: [[!Jorge Luis Borges]]
- From: B-Ficciones
- Status:
- Date: 2020-08-21
- Tags: #historical #weirdfiction #spy
- Rating: ★★★☆☆
- Idea richness: ★★★★☆
Summary
A detective/spy thriller of sorts which takes a wild turn into the metaphysical before a snap twist at the end brings it all back around. The Garden of Forking Paths follows a Chinese spy working for the Germans trying to find a way to communicate a message back to his handlers while hounded by a detective. Along the way, he ends up discovering the truth of his ancestor's invisible Labyrinth and makes a fateful choice.
Thoughts
I'll be honest, The Garden of Forking Paths left me in a bit of a muddle. The beginning and end were killer (no pun intended), but I got a bit lost in the middle around the invisible labyrinth. I need to sit down and reread it properly.
To me, it seemed to be hinting around ideas of the Multiverse theory with different forking branches depending on choices playing out across history.
SPOILER Loved the ending though, and the idea of communicating the location to be bombed by killing a man with the same name so it would be reported in the newspaper.