Got this because: translated by Ursula LeGuin, of course!
I'm still going to maintain that LeGuin will never steer you wrong... but this slight volume was interesting, rather than amazing.

What struck me most was its similarity to another work translated by LeGuin, 'Kalpa Imperial.' While 'Kalpa Imperial' is a collection of pieces describing different eras in one imaginary empire, 'Squaring the Circle' is a similar collection of short pieces describing a variety of different imaginary cities.

(The introduction to this book notes a similarity to Calvino's 'Invisible Cities,' but I haven't read that at this time.)

I preferred 'Kalpa Imperial.' In contrast, the pieces (not really stories, per se) here are much shorter, and while I felt that they sought for Borges-like impact, I wasn't quite feeling it. Almost - but, a bit too much architecture, not quite enough human nature. The pieces feel almost like fragmentary nuggets of (future?) folktales. I liked it, but I wanted a bit more.

Still, kudos to LeGuin for bringing this Romanian author to an English-speaking audience. It's quite sad, however, that LeGuin notes that she's been doing translating as she doesn't have enough energy for her own stories, at this time (she's now 83). ( )

The very premise of this volume enchanted me: a series of descriptions of cities that never were. These are not fantasy worlds but fantasy cities in our world, some a plausible product of the cultural and physical shaping of the world we know, some more firmly rooted in fiction and mythology. It sounds like something I would want to create myself, the kind of disjointed, concrete creativity that I love. This is a translation of a translation (from the original Romanian through Spanish), and only incorporates about two thirds of the original book, but the translation nonethless captures something special—there is something completely magical and haunting about the prose, and about these cities. It would be impossible to pick a favourite, but I found Sah-Harah, Dava and Selenia to be particularly affecting. Each of the segments is powerful in its own way. ( )