My Amazon post on Parini's book about his roadtrip with Borges

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2021
Andrea on 5 September 2020 in a review here stated that this is a work of fiction, not a memoir. Her account is documented in the 29 January 2021 LONDON TLS by David Gallagher, the Chilean ambassador in London. He is offended particularly by claims that this book is a "memoir" and not a novel, for he is sure that some of the events described never took place, although he grants this: "My best guess is that Parini briefly met Borges with [Alastair] Reid and, looking back on the encounter, thought of writing a 'what if' book.'" It appears that there may be no evidence even of a brief meeting between Borges and Parini. Now, Parini himself gives hints that many episodes described in this book may not have happened. He just does not declare that NO episode involving him and Borges ever happened. Gallagher is outraged that the book has been taken "at face value" in the United States as memoir. "This is a memoir about writers," says Michael Greenberg in the New York TIMES. Greenberg seems to have been thoroughly suckered by Parini. Other reviewers will be chagrined to learn they had been tricked. Gallagher is disdainful: "for those of us who admire Borges, the use Parini makes of him is pretentious and silly. The Borges he describes is a shoddy parody of the original." The photograph at the top of this item indicates that Parini is not using "memoir" so much as "Encounter." It might have been honest to call this a fantasy--to call it just what Gallagher mentions without actually suggesting it: "a 'what if' book"--the sort of thing any of us could imagine. For example, I drove up to St. Joe's in Greenville many times three and a half decades ago (I really did), so I will tell you about rafting on the Brandywine with the Bidens. Anyone can play, but it seems "cynical," as Gallagher says,  to trick people. Truth in packaging, please!