Hopscotch (Pantheon Modern Writers Series)

Average customer rating:

A Labyrinth Not for the Systematic Reader...

"People who do not read Cortazar are doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease." P. Neruda

A sad ending ...

Not for the plot-hungry, but worth it for enthusiasts

For a multidimensional and modern narrative

Hopscotch (Pantheon Modern Writers Series)
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Latin American | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Spanish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Blow-Up: And Other Stories

Rayuela Rayuela

Pedro Paramo

Cronopios and Famas

Borges: Collected Fictions

ASIN: 0394752848
Release Date: 1987-02-12

Book Description

Horacio Oliveira is an Argentinian writer who lives in Paris with his mistress, La Maga, surrounded by a loose-knit circle of bohemian friends who call themselves "the Club." A child's death and La Maga's disappearance put an end to his life of empty pleasures and intellectual acrobatics, and prompt Oliveira to return to Buenos Aires, where he works by turns as a salesman, a keeper of a circus cat which can truly count, and an attendant in an insane asylum. Hopscotch is the dazzling, free-wheeling account of Oliveira's astonishing adventures.

Customer Reviews:

A Labyrinth Not for the Systematic Reader..........2005-12-03

HOPSCOTCH by Julio Cortazar is more of a maze exploration than simply a good read, yet I became entranced with the prose.

Initially I was attracted to the non-linear format of HOPSCOTCH. Cortazar wants us jumping in and out of the plot line in the main "novel" with seemingly off-the-wall interruptions, but they turn out to be connected after all by the "end." And then some of the juxtapositions are less sublime but equally effective, such as in chapter 14 when Oliveira is looking at Wong's series of pictures depicting an execution in China. As gruesome as the descriptions are, skipping next to chapter 114, I couldn't help but to internalize the absurdity of the "civilized" treatment in the San Quentin prison gas chamber.

Anyway, HOPSCOTCH has in fact been a wonderful read but I think this is the kind of book that readers have to give at least fifty pages (even if that happens to be page 210) before the story grabs hold.

"People who do not read Cortazar are doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease." P. Neruda.......2005-09-05

It has taken me years to sit down and finally make a serious commitment to read Julio Cortazar's "Hopscotch/La Rayuela." I cannot think of a better companion to devote a few weeks to, maybe even a bit longer - hey, whatever it takes! It depends on your reading speed and the time you take to savor the poetry of the author's language. So, be willing to make a small personal investment in this very special novel, and the reward you reap will be a worthy one. Julio Cortazar will take you to places you have never been before in literature, and may never experience again. I read "Hopscotch" over this past summer, after a thirty year delay. I can be real stubborn about putting off what is good for me!! Cortazar's imagination is boundless, his prose rich and luminous, his wit and sophistication rare, the dialogue brilliant, the plot...I won't attempt to describe that with a few adjectives. Wander through the extraordinary labyrinthine plot on you own - the way is yours to discover. I promise, you won't get lost!

My introduction to "La Rayuela", (which means hopscotch, like the children's game), is a personal story. I will make it quick. About 30 years ago, while living in Latin America, a friend told me that I reminded him of a character in a novel. The character, La Maga - the book "La Rayuela/Hopscotch." With personal interests at stake and much curiosity, I bought a copy in Spanish, which I read with some fluency at the time. After experimenting with which way to approach the novel, and trying both ways, I gave up...and just read the parts about La Maga. I was too impatient at that point in my life, and needed to become a mellower person, to read slower, with more of a sense of play and participation. And Cortazar wants his readers to participate - to make reading his book an interactive experience, not a passive one. I was and still feel touched when I remember my friend's comments regarding La Maga. She is a magnificent character and Cortazer's prose, his language, (Spanish), is exquisite. So, I thought I'd give it another try, in English, perhaps with better results. None! I just wasn't ready, I guess. That happens to me with fiction sometimes. I have to be open to the experience. However, after all these years, I still thought of Horacio Oliveira and La Maga from time to time. And why not? They are truly unforgettable. As I wrote above, I did make time, at last. For an adventure of a lifetime, I recommend you do the same.

When Julio Cortazar published "La Rayuela" in 1966, he turned the conventional novel upside-down and the literary world on its ear with this experiment in writing fiction. He soon became an important influence on writers everywhere. "Hopscotch" is considered to be one of the best novels written in Spanish. This is an interactive novel where readers are invited to rearrange its sections and read them in different sequences. Read in a linear fashion, "Hopscotch" contains 700 pages, 155 chapters in three sections: "From the Other Side," and "From This Side" - the first two sections are sustained by relatively chronological narratives and so contrast greatly with the third section, "From Diverse Sides," (subtitled "Expendable Chapters"), which includes philosophical extrapolation, character study, allusions and quotations, and an entirely different version of the "ending."

The book has no table of contents, but rather a "Table of Instructions." There, we learn that two approved readings are possible: from Chapter 1 through 56 "in a normal fashion", or from Chapter 73 to Chapter 1 to... well, wherever the chapters lead you. The instructions are all in your book and are extremely clear. At the end of each chapter there is a numeric indicator to lead the reader to the next chapter. One never knows where one will be lead. Due to its meandering nature, "Hopscotch" has been called a "Proto-hypertext" novel. Cortázar probably had this work in mind when he stated, "If I had the technical means to print my own books, I think I would keep on producing collage-books."

What is most important, as a reviewer, is to give you, the prospective reader, an idea of the narrative and the characters...and to tell you why reading this novel was such an extraordinary experience for me. Horacio Oliveira, our protagonist and sometimes narrator, is an Argentinean expatriate, an intellectual and professed writer in 1950's bohemian Paris. He and his close friends, members of "the Club," do lots of partying, drinking, and intellectualizing, discussing art, literature, music and solving the world's problems. Oliveira lives with and loves La Maga, an exotic young woman, somewhat whimsical, at times almost ephemeral who leaves behind her, like the scent of a light perfume, a feeling of poignancy and inevitable loss. La Maga refuses to plan her encounters with Oliveira in advance, preferring instead to run into each other by chance. Then she and Oliveira celebrate the series of circumstances that reunite them - although he knows well the places she frequents and is capable of causing at least a few planned surprises. Eventually, he loses La Maga, who loses her child. With her absence, Oliveira realizes how empty and meaningless his life is and he returns to his native Buenos Aires. There he finds work first as a salesman, then a keeper of a circus cat, and an attendant in an insane asylum.

As Oliveira wends his way through France, Uruguay and Argentina looking for his lost love, "Hopscotch's" narrative takes on an emotionally intense stream of consciousness style, rich in metaphor. Back In Argentina, Oliveira shares his life with his bizarre double, Traveler, and Traveler's wife, Talita, whom Oliveira attempts to remake into a facsimile of La Maga. The game of hopscotch is only developed as a conceit late in the narrative. It is first used to describe Oliveira's confused love for La Maga as "that crazy hopscotch." The theme develops as a metaphor for reaching Heaven from Earth. "When practically no one has learned how to make the pebble climb into Heaven, childhood is over all of a sudden and you're into novels, into the anguish of the senseless divine trajectory, into the speculation about another Heaven that you have to learn to reach too." The variations on the children's game are described as "spiral hopscotch, rectangular hopscotch, fantasy hopscotch, not played very often." The allusions continue and include some beautiful passages.

"Hopscotch" is much more than a novel. Ultimately, it is best left for each reader to define what it is for himself/herself. Pablo Neruda in a famous quote said, "People who do not read Cortazar are doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease." I don't know whether I would go so far. Remember, I put off the experience for many years. But this is one novel that should be read during one's lifetime. It is brilliant and it is fun!
JANA

A sad ending ..........2005-01-10

... but not in the fashion of what Julio Cortazar called the female reader, but in the sense that, in an act of editorial indiscretion, the author failed to let go of the entire Part 3, making a bona-fide, in fact a supreme book matching Under the Volcano in emotional intensity into something with a large appendix of (sometimes amusing) existentialist musings. If you are into novelist anticlimax, or antinovelish (Cortazar's word) fettishes, go ahead and read part 3. If you want to go out on a high note, stop after you have done Part 2.

The above notwithstanding, Cortazar was a supreme talent. The story is a simple one, but Cortazar was able to make it extremely complicated in words, intellectual virtuosity, and existentialist absurdities. If the reader finds the start tedious and pointless, I can assure you that you will find your reward near the end of Part 2 (in fact for most of Part 2). Certain scenes and narratives were just acts of genius, and it was emotionally moving.

However, don't go to Part 3, if you do not want your emotional resonance deconstructed -- maybe that is the point of Part 3, but I am just a little too old-fashioned.

Not for the plot-hungry, but worth it for enthusiasts.......2005-01-01

I suppose it's unreasonable to expect the world's first so-called hypertext novel - one in which you can read the chapters sequentially, or in an order recommended by the author, or in any other order you choose - to have a compelling plot. After all, plot relies on anticipation and surprise, both of which come from authorial control over how and when information is revealed. A lot of the delight in fiction comes from this, and most of the rest from character, theme and the texture of the language. Cortazar's revolutionary novel is big on the last few, but not unexpectedly fails to be very engaging when it comes to story. It's more of a character study, or rather an elaboration of a philosophical position through the depiction of certain people in a particular place and time, i.e. left-leaning international emigres in 1950s Paris, and later the locals in Buenos Aires, who spend most of their time smoking, drinking, listening to jazz, competing for affection, philosophizing about life, and trying not to be the creative geniuses they obviously know they are. There are some wonderful set pieces: the infamous Chapter 28 involving a baby in a darkened room; the afternoon a plank bridge is erected to join two hotel rooms on opposite sides of a busy Buenos Aires street; an elaborate booby trap of water-filled basins, tangled threads and ball-bearings to thwart a vengeful lover in the night; and, obviously, the hopscotch squares of the title which are drawn in the courtyard of an insane asylum. These incidents are all engaging, comic, and wonderfully laden with a metaphorical/philosophical import which serves Cortazar's embedded theme: that is, the conundrum of consciousness; the unending desire to break through "the wall" to the other side of life in order to achieve the "unity" we intuitively feel exists but to which there is no easy path. This is the novel's engine, but it does take a while to fire up. If slowly savouring 500+ pages of that kind of thing interests you, then you'll enjoy "Hopscotch" immensely. If it doesn't, then reading this novel will be somewhat like being trapped at a really bad party with drunk and depressive philosophy undergraduates who think they know everything about jazz. I had the urge to leave early, but I'm glad I stayed until the end. Eventually, someone shut the music off, opened all the windows, and in the silence of dawn something clicked.

For a multidimensional and modern narrative .......2004-11-21

Many people think that the word interaction is a XXI century concept related to computers and cyberspace, but it as far as literature goes, this is one of the oldest concepts pursued by many writers. Argentinian Julio Cortázar comes as one of the most important authors to seek such structure with his monumental novel "Hopscotch", written in 1964.

Not only history did influence Cortázar in his writings, but also European Vanguards have a major role in his literary project -- most notably Cubism. The non-linear narrative of "Hopscotch" makes its structure reads like a hopscotch game. Reading the novel feels like jumping from one square to another, back and forth. Using that, the author tries to violate the rules established of writing and narrative structure.

If one chooses to read "Hopscotch" in the linear fashion --both ways are possibilities -- there are 155 chapters in three sections: "From the Other Side," "From This Side," and "From Diverse Sides" (subtitled "Expendable Chapters"). And in the introduction the reader will find a "Table of Instructions." There, we learn that two approved readings of the book are possible: from Chapter 1 through 56 "in a normal fashion" (i), or from Chapter 73 to Chapter 1 to... well, wherever the chapters lead. Each has a numeric indicator of the subsequent chapter following its terminal sentence. In this way, we do not know which chapter to expect next until it is time to actually read it.

Horacio Oliveira is an Argentinian writer living in the bohemian Paris of the 50s. After losing her lover, known as La Maga, he returns to his Buenos Aires to continue his picaresque adventures.

Another structure used in the novel is the labyrinth -- like the labyrinth of streets where Oliveira usually meets La Maga in Paris. And this also alludes to an emotional labyrinth to which both he and she will be trapped. By the way, emotion -- not the regular one-- has a major role in the narrative. All Oliveira's friends are somehow emotionally damaged -- trying to cope with their depression and problems.

However much the structure sounds like off putting, the novel reads smoothly once one gets into the cubism of the narrative. Needless to say that the reader must appreciated the bohemian way of life -- including alcohol and drugs, and art discussion -- to be interested in the book.

With his "Hopscotch", Cortázar defies his readers. Playing this game is worth the candle. Experienced readers will be delighted with the structure of hypertext and all the possibilities of reading this novel.

Average customer rating:

Simplemente fantástica
La mejor novela que he leído nunca
"Of all our feelings the only one which doesn't belong to us is hope. Hope belongs to life, it's life defending itself."
excellent by Julio Cortazar
Existencialismo Latinoamericano

Rayuela
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: Alfaguara
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Latin American | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 9681902009

Book Description

A must-have classic of Latin American literature. Horacio Oliveira is an Argentinean writer who lives in Paris with his mistress, La Maga, surrounded by a loose-knit circle of bohemian friends who call themselves "The Club." A child's death and La Maga's disappearance put an end to his life of empty pleasures and intellectual acrobatics, and returns to Buenos Aires. Rayuela is the dazzling, free-wheeling account of his astonishing adventures.

Description in Spanish: Es reconocida corno la obra maestra de Julio Cortázar. De entrada, él nos propone elegir uno de los dos accesos: leer en el orden acostumbrado y acabar en el capítulo 56 (al que siguen más capítulos, que denomina como "prescindibles"), o bien, seguir el "tablero de dirección", que nos remite de un capítulo a otro, pasando por variadas trampas o juegos: una omisión aparente, un doble y significativo envío... Esto nos ofrece, en principio, dos libros distintos. Rayuela, sin embargo, se bifurca a su vez en dos ambientes físicos: el "Del lado de allá", en París, con la relación de Oliveira y la Maga, el club de la serpiente, el primer descenso a los infiernos de Horacio, etcétera; y el "Del lado de aquí", en Buenos Aires, con el encuentro de Traveler y Talita, el circo, el manicomio, el segundo descenso... Estilo y estructura, dice Nabokov, hacen la novela. La perfección que alcanzan en RayueIa nos coloca (y esto fue claro desde que vio la luz, en 1963) ante una de las mejores novelas escritas en nuestra lengua.

Customer Reviews:

Simplemente fantástica.......2007-03-20

Una novela que marca a todo el que la lee... el lenguaje en su máxima y más hermosa expresión.

La mejor novela que he leído nunca.......2005-12-19

La historia con Bèrthe Trépat, la carta de La Maga a Rocamadour, Talita pasando por el tablón y, claro, el capítulo 7 (toco tu boca...). Este libro me deja sin aliento. Nunca, pero NUNCA he leído nada de semejante belleza.

"Of all our feelings the only one which doesn't belong to us is hope. Hope belongs to life, it's life defending itself.".......2005-09-13

It has taken me years to sit down and finally make a serious commitment to read Julio Cortazar's "Hopscotch/La Rayuela." I cannot think of a better companion to devote a few weeks to, maybe even longer - hey, whatever it takes! It depends on your reading speed and the time you take to truly savor the poetry of the author's language. So, be willing to make a small personal investment in this very special novel, and the reward you reap will be a worthy one. Julio Cortazar will take you to places you have never been before in literature, and may never experience again. I read "Hopscotch" over this past summer, after a thirty year delay. I can be very stubborn about putting off what is good for me!! The author's imagination is boundless, his prose rich and luminous, his wit and sophistication rare, the dialogue brilliant, the plot...I won't attempt to describe that with a few adjectives. Wander through the extraordinary labyrinthine plot on you own - the way is yours to discover. I promise, you won't get lost!

I was introduced to "La Rayuela" about thirty years ago, when a close friend, with similar reading tastes, gave me the book. Enthused after just reading the novel, he told me that I reminded him of one of the characters, La Maga. (What a compliment...I think!). I was living in Latin America at the time. With personal interests at stake and much curiosity, I bought a copy in Spanish, which I read with some fluency back then. After experimenting with which way to approach the novel, and trying both ways, I gave up...and just read the parts about La Maga. I had little patience at that point in my life, and needed to acquire some, and to read slower, with more of a sense of play and participation. Cortazar wants his readers to participate - to make reading his book an interactive experience, not a passive one. I was and still feel touched when I remember my friend's comments regarding La Maga. She is a magnificent character and Cortazer's prose, his language, (Spanish), is exquisite. So, about a year later, I thought I'd give it another try, in English, perhaps with better results. None! I just wasn't ready, I guess. That happens to me with fiction occasionally. I have to be open to the experience. Yet, after all these years, I still thought of Horacio Oliveira and La Maga from time to time. And why not? They are truly unforgettable. As I wrote above, I did make time, at last. For an adventure of a lifetime, I recommend you do the same.

When Julio Cortazar published "La Rayuela" in 1966, he turned the conventional novel upside-down and the literary world on its ear with this experiment in writing fiction. He soon became an important influence on writers everywhere. "Hopscotch" is considered to be one of the best novels written in Spanish. The work is interactive, where readers are invited to rearrange its text and read sections in different sequences. Read in a linear fashion, "Hopscotch" contains 700 pages, 155 chapters in three sections: "From the Other Side," and "From This Side" - the first two sections are sustained by relatively chronological narratives and so contrast greatly with the third section, "From Diverse Sides," (subtitled "Expendable Chapters"), which includes philosophical extrapolation, character study, allusions and quotations, and an entirely different version of the "ending."

The book has no table of contents, but rather a "Table of Instructions." There, we learn that two approved readings are possible: from Chapter 1 through 56 "in a normal fashion", or from Chapter 73 to Chapter 1 to... well, wherever the chapters lead you. The instructions are all in your book and are extremely clear. At the end of each chapter there is a numeric indicator to lead the reader to the next chapter. One never knows where one will be lead. Due to its meandering nature, "Hopscotch" has been called a "Proto-hypertext" novel. Cortázar probably had this work in mind when he stated, "If I had the technical means to print my own books, I think I would keep on producing collage-books."

Horacio Oliveira, our protagonist and sometimes narrator, is an Argentinean expatriate, an intellectual and professed writer in 1950's bohemian Paris. He and his close friends, members of "the Club," do lots of partying, drinking, and intellectualizing, discussing art, literature, music and solving the world's problems. Oliveira lives with and loves La Maga, an exotic young woman, somewhat whimsical, at times almost ephemeral, who leaves behind her, like the scent of a light perfume, a feeling of poignancy and inevitable loss. La Maga refuses to plan her encounters with Oliveira in advance, preferring instead to run into each other by chance. Then she and Oliveira celebrate the series of circumstances that reunite them. Eventually, he loses La Maga, who loses her child. With her absence, Oliveira realizes how empty and meaningless his life is and he returns to his native Buenos Aires. There he finds work first as a salesman, then a keeper of a circus cat, and an attendant in an insane asylum.

As Oliveira wends his way through France, Uruguay and Argentina looking for his lost love, "Hopscotch's" narrative takes on an emotionally intense stream of consciousness style, rich in metaphor. Back In Argentina, Oliveira shares his life with his bizarre double, Traveler, and Traveler's wife, Talita, whom Oliveira attempts to remake into a facsimile of La Maga.

The game of hopscotch is only developed as a conceit late in the narrative. It is first used to describe Oliveira's confused love for La Maga as "that crazy hopscotch." The theme develops as a metaphor for reaching Heaven from Earth. "When practically no one has learned how to make the pebble climb into Heaven, childhood is over all of a sudden and you're into novels, into the anguish of the senseless divine trajectory, into the speculation about another Heaven that you have to learn to reach too." The variations on the children's game are described as "spiral hopscotch, rectangular hopscotch, fantasy hopscotch, not played very often." The allusions continue and include some beautiful passages.

"Hopscotch" is much more than a novel. Ultimately, it is best left for each reader to define what it is for himself/herself. Pablo Neruda in a famous quote said, "People who do not read Cortazar are doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease." I don't know whether I would go so far. Remember, I put off the experience for many years. But this is one novel that should be read during one's lifetime. It is brilliant and it is fun!
JANA

excellent by Julio Cortazar.......2004-03-05

I really enjoyed this original book.

Existencialismo Latinoamericano.......2001-11-16

Rayuela es, junto a otras obras como "El Túnel" de Sábato, una de las pocas muestras de literatura Existencialista latinoamericana. Y el resultado difícilmente pudo ser mejor, este libro de Cortázar fue aclamado por la crítica internacional y actualmente está junto con "Cien años de Soledad" ,y algunos otros pocos, dentro de las novelas latinoamericanas más renombradas.

En la primera página de "Rayuela", el autor indica que la obra es en realidad muchos libros y no sólo uno, pero que principalmente son dos libros (dos formas de leerlo). El primero se lee en forma continua, desde el capítulo 1 hasta el 56. El segundo se lee de acuerdo a un orden específico que da Cortázar, y abarca muchos otros capítulos, la totalidad de la obra. La palabra Rayuela se refiere a un juego, y algunos críticos consideran que esta 2da opción es también un juego, una broma del autor. Incluso al llegar a cierto capitulo (leyendo de la 2da forma), te ves dirigido luego al capítulo que leíste antes, formándose así un circulo de tal manera que la obra no tiene fin. ¿Cómo leer Rayuela? En lo personal la leí en forma continua, y no me arrepiento, aunque confieso haberle dado una hojeada a los capítulos no leídos.

No quiero contarles la trama de la novela, que si bien es muy valiosa, no es lo principal y no vale la pena conocerla antes de la lectura (como en casi todos los libros, en mi opinión). Basta con decir que narra la historia de Horacio Oliveira, un argentino de espíritu libre, sus años en París y en Argentina, y sus problemas existenciales. Como en toda novela existencialista, el principal atractivo es la profundidad de los personajes y la habilidad narrativa del escritor para envolvernos en la personalidad y mente de estos; en todo esto triunfa Julio Cortázar. En Rayuela, además de Oliveira, hay otros caracteres interesantisimos, como la famosa "Maga". La construcción de este personaje es una genialidad del autor, "La Maga" termina siendo una suerte de "Madame Bovary", una mujer a la cual ni Oliveira ni el lector podrán nunca olvidar.

Que más decir, "Rayuela" es un libro infalible, genial, de lectura imprescindible para cualquiera que disfrute leyendo a Sábato, Camus, Hesse, Sartre o Dostoievski. Pero es para cualquiera en realidad, pues es un libro verdaderamente extraordinario.

Average customer rating:

Literature at the Planck Scale

An early version of La Maga

A fantastic intro to Cortazar

A marvelous collection of short stories -- but what makes them so is not easy to explain

Amazing book, mediocre translation

Blow-Up: And Other Stories
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Latin American | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Spanish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Hopscotch (Pantheon Modern Writers Series)

The Aleph and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)

Ficciones (English Translation)

Collected Stories

Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings (New Directions Paperbook)

ASIN: 0394728815
Release Date: 1985-02-12

Book Description

A young girl spends her summer vacation in a country house where a tiger roams...A man reading a mystery finds out too late that he is the murderer's victim...In the stories collected here -- including "Blow-Up;' on which Antonioni based his film -- Julio Cortazar explores the boundary where the everyday meets the mysterious, perhaps even the terrible. This is the most brilliant and celebrated book of short stories by a master of the form.

Customer Reviews:

Literature at the Planck Scale.......2007-04-06

In this book are collected some of the most well-known short stories of the great Latin American writer, Julio Cortazar. Cortazar was a great experimental writer (his most famous novel, "Hopscotch", was a pre-cursor to future hyper-text novels) who drew his inspiration from French Symbolism, Surrealism and the improvisational nature of Free Jazz.

Fellow Argentine, Jorge Luis Borges, once famously stated that there was no way of retelling the plot of a Cortazar story - he was absolutely right. The plot is minimal for many of the stories in this collection and in a sense, it is subsidiary. The `essence' of a Cortazar story is largely ineffable. Attempting to capture it in words leads one to fumble just the way that his characters do (see, for example, the short story "The Idol of the Cyclades" or "The Pursuer"). In Cortazar's fictions, reality and fantasy are separated by a permeable membrane and the proper way to read his writing is to experience it, to exercise to the fullest extent possible one's sense of empathy with the writing, in a sense, to merge with it. Indeed, this merging of the fantastic and real, of several viewpoints, is a recurring theme in this collection of short stories - it is most fully manifest in "Axolotl" wherein the young boy becomes obsessed with the axolotls to the point where he actually becomes one. However, the theme also recurs in "The Distances", "A Yellow Flower" and "The Continuity of Parks."

Many of the stories are a bit like the Taoist parable of Chuang Tzu who dreamed that he was a butterfly but upon waking was no longer sure whether he was a man who dreamt that he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming that he was a man. Cortazar's stories seem to exist in kind of quantum superposition states where both one and the other are simultaneously being realized -- this is literature at the Planck scale. Probably no other author has managed to capture, in writing, the feel of the uncanny as masterfully as Cortazar has. There is a sense of unease, half-hinted, that permeates through almost the entire collection. This barely expressible sense of a discordant note is especially evident in "The House Taken Over", "Letter to a Young Lady in Paris", "The Night Face Up" (a stand-out story which for me had some similarities to Borges' story, "The South"), "Bestiary", "Blow-up" (on which the Michelangelo Antonioni film was loosely based) and "Secret Weapons."

I suspect that I will be returning to many of these stories in the future as they seem to welcome repeated visits. Not all of the stories were of equal quality for me - some were less enjoyable than others. In discussing Cortazar as a novelist Borges once commented "He is trying so hard on every page to be original that it becomes a tiresome battle of wits, no?" To a certain extent, I felt the same way about some of the short stories in this collection, though quite possibly this is because I am not a sophisticated enough reader of post-modernist literature.

Overall however, reading the collection was an enjoyable experience which I recommend to other readers. Some of the stories are sure to persist in one's memory as beautifully strange, haunting experiences, inviting repeated visits.

An early version of La Maga.......2006-11-05

The other reviews here cover Cortazazr's work and talent so well that I'm only going to add something about one of the stories. If you're a fan of his novel Rayuela, or Hopscotch in English, the last story in this collection will be of particular interest to you. In "Secret Weapons," the main female character, Michele, is obviously an early prototype of the main female character in Rayuela: La Maga.

Michele is described as being "like a cat," and she's late for her appointment with Pierre (who is somewhat like Horacio Oliviera from Rayuela) because she's been wandering around the city looking into store windows. Quote from the story: "Michele can't be much longer, unless she gets lost or hangs around in the streets on the way, she has this extraordinary capacity to stop any place and take herself a trip through the small particular worlds of the shop windows. Afterward, she will tell him about: a stuffed bear that winds up, a Couperin record, a bronze chain with a blue stone, Stendhal's complete works, the summer fashions. Completely understandable reasons for arriving a bit late."

Cortazar doesn't develop this ability of Michele's into a deeper meaning, the way he does throughout Hopscotch, where La Maga's ability to become lost in the physical world intrigues and endears Horacio, who by contrast is so deep into his philosophies that he feels removed and lost from the world around him. But Michele and Pierre have a similar sexual interplay to La Maga and Horacio...in modern jargon it would be called sadism/masochism...but of course in Cortazar's descriptions it's something much more deeply felt and true than those words allow for.

Pierre isn't too much like Horacio...you could say they both smoke Gauloises, but pretty much every Cortazar character smokes them. But Pierre isn't so into philosophy and in fact he's blonde...that sounds superficial but it creeped me out to all of a sudden picture Horacio's doppleganger as blonde. I guess it's important to the story for him to be blonde. Anyway.

The characters Babette and Roland are here as well, straight from Rayuela. They're secondary characters in this story and not really developed at all, the way they are in the novel, but they're here nonetheless, a couple with the exact same names.

I of course loved this collection for all the reasons previous reviewers have mentioned. This story was an extra surprise at the end. It's really fascinating to see a writer explore a certain character in a short story and then expand the same character in a novel, to see how the character changes and how the writer's approach changes with the format.

A fantastic intro to Cortazar.......2006-09-17

Cortazar was one of the more unearthly literary geniuses of the 20th century; like Borges and Nabokov I return to his short stories often (more than a decade after first discovering them), and can still get new things out of them.

I agree with previous reviewers - Cortazar's precision with language rivals Nabokov, Kafka, Proust or Borges. I would add another comparison as well - though the intent is quite different, the very musical and rhythmic sensuality of the writing also recalls the best of Ferlinghetti - Cortazar is confident enough in his expertise to be willing to play with language in a similar fashion, and creates extraordinary and unforgettable worlds throught this (and other) collections.

This is a great introduction to Cortazar, with many personal favorites: "Night Face Up," "Idol Of The Cyclades," "House Taken Over" and "Axolotl" are all unforgettable short fictions. I wouldn't stop there - Cortazar's other writing is well worth investigating (especially the second story collection, ALL FIRES THE FIRE). Cortazar seems to be sliding into unfortunate obscurity as of late, with a number of key works currently out of print. Thankfully, and for the time being, this is not one of them.

-David Alston

A marvelous collection of short stories -- but what makes them so is not easy to explain.......2006-07-22

This book was my first experience with reading Cortazar. From the first story on, the excitement of encountering a new (to me) brilliant writer went through me like an electric shock. The book injected an excitement and alertness into what otherwise might have been a sluggish weekend.

I have found, however, that explaining the basis of this excitement to others is not easy. It comes down to the difficulty of explaining what it is that makes great writers truly great -- an elusive insight.

Part of it is simple virtuosity; Cortazar possesses that which also distinguishes the writing of other greats such as Nabokov and Proust: that facility with language, the ability to find and to manipulate exactly the right words, to create a precise, vivid image, and to make music out of prose. (Note: I could perceive his virtuosity even though I read this book as an English translation.)

But it goes beyond virtuosity. If Cortazar wrote about ideas to which I was indifferent, the writing would not matter to me. But his stories inspire those flashes of recognition that make reading exciting; he creates those "aha" moments through his ability to present a feeling or situation that you recognize on some level, even if it's one that never previously made it out of your subconscious and which you might not have thought to remark upon, had not Cortazar dug it up for you.

From the general to the specific: This is a collection of short stories, most of which contain an element of the fantastic. Some of the flashes of recognition that I mention above are recognitions of mundane, daily feelings, but others are not. Cortazar seems to have ready access as well to our subconscious fears and to our dreams.

To take but a few cases in point:

One story involves a brother and sister who share a large, old wooden house, once owned by their great grandparents. At one point in the story, they hear voices and commotion from another part of the house. They bolt the doors, shut off that section, and confine themselves to living in the front part of the house. It's all left quite mysterious: Cortazar never explains who "they" are, who have taken over part of the house. But someting about this story rings eerily true; it's that bizarre combination of vivid, mundane reality, and unexplained phenomena, and illogical reactions to those phenomena, that characterize dreams.

Another example is a story in which a young girl goes to live with distant relatives in their country house for a summer. The house has a tiger roaming the rooms, but let's put that aside: what is remarkable about the story is Cortazar's ability to bring the scene to life, of an urbanite or suburbanite who is new to this comparatively relaxed environment. In one small, but typically rendered scene, the main character finds a bug crawling in an antiquated wash basin. She flicks at it, it curls into a ball, and she easily washes it down with running water. This is classic Cortazar; with a few well-chosen sentences, he puts you in that world: a world where the reader senses the sunlight through the house, the smell of pollen in the air, the renewed emphasis on the freshness of vegetables at the local market, and the ease with such inconveniences as older plumbing and intrusions by bugs are encountered.

Comparison with other writers is a bit unfair, because Cortazar has a voice all of his own. But in case it's helpful to you, Cortazar's precise prose reminded me a bit of Nabokov, his sense of wonder and magic recalled Steven Millhauser, and his trafficking in paradoxes a bit like Borges. But he's not quite like any of them: his prose focuses less than Borges on logical contradictions, and is more weighted toward precisely rendering sensory images.

Several of the stories are outstanding. My favorites (in addition to the two mentioned above: "House Taken Over", and "Bestiary") included:

Axolotls -- in which the narrator identifies very closely with an exotic amphibian species on his trips to the zoo.

A Yellow Flower -- an encounter with a sort of reincarnation gone awry

Continuity of Parks -- a very economical, very short story with an eerie, paradoxical twist

The Night Face Up -- a story in which reality and dreams are very difficult to distinguish

Cortazar is a master of the short story form. I would recommend him to anyone who likes the works of Borges, Millhauser, Nabokov, or Bruno Schulz.

Amazing book, mediocre translation.......2005-10-06

Cortazar is one of the most amazing writers in Latin American literature. He is also almost completely unknown in the US. As far as this goes, then, this translation fills a huge gap; and one of this book's merits is that it makes Cortazar and his stories more widely known.
The translation itself, however, is subpar. You will certainly get the gist of the stories, and since a large part of Cortazar's stories hinge on the plot lines, you will definitely enjoy this book. However, just as much (in my opinion) of Cortazar's genius lies in his use of language as it does in his crazy imagination. And, I'm very sorry to say, this translation really doesn't do justice to him at all.
My recommendation, then: if you have never read Cortazar, this book will provide an excellent introduction to his works. Until a better translation is available, we must do with what we have: Cortazar is definitely worthwhile, no matter how much gets lost in the translation. Don't expect, however, full justice to be made to Cortazar's use of language. As is usual in these cases, the best way to read him is to tackle him in Spanish.

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La Autopista de Cortázar
Cortazar is genious
Great book for a fair price.
Mejor que nunca
Principio ideal al cuento latinoamericano

La autopista del sur y otros cuentos
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014025580X

Customer Reviews:

La Autopista de Cortázar.......2007-09-10

This is a book in spanish, so I'll write down the review in spanish.
Cortázar es un escritor hábil que, como ya han notado muchos críticos, intenta describir la experiencia estética del artista a través de un lenguaje deliberadamente complejo que, quizá, logra captar ese mátiz particular que el artista descubre en la realidad.
"Las babas de diablo" es un típico ejemplo de lo dicho precedentemente, sin embargo, también es visible en Cortázar el gusto por lo fantástico, como en "Casa tomada", donde el misterio nunca es revelado, pero si sus funestas consecuencias. En resumén, no creo que Cortázar sea un escritor fácil, pero es un escritor interesante, y éste libro, con todos sus defectos, contiene cuentos extraordinariamente bien escritos,y, se puede añadir: intencionalmente bien escritos.

Cortazar is genious.......2007-07-09

Cortazar captures thoughts, feelings and ideas some of us have throughout our lives and creates new fictional worlds. The contrast and blend of real and unreal is fantastic. A must have!! It contains many of his greatest short stories.

Great book for a fair price........2007-03-26

Great book with an excellent selection of texts. Shipping is also good and pretty fast. Great product.

Mejor que nunca.......2007-01-06

El gran Cortazar sobrevive al mejor nivel en esta edicion del libro clasico.

Principio ideal al cuento latinoamericano.......2005-06-22

Usted no necesita ser un experto en literatura para disfrutar de un buen libro. La clave en esta colección es que reune los cuentos que contribuyeron a que Julio Cortázar se convirtiera en el maestro latinoamericano del relato. Junto a antologías de narrativa corta de los grandes escritores nuestros y que recomiendo (El llano en llamas, de Juan Rulfo; Ficciones, de Jorge Luis Borges; Doce cuentos pregrinos, de Gabriel García Márquez; y de recientes como Maldito amor, de Jorge Franco; y Desencuentros, de Edmundo Paz Soldán, entre otros), La autopista del sur y otros cuentos es la mejor introducción que cualquier lector interesado puede tener en la literatura de Cortázar y su alta influencia en autores contemporáneos, aún si no se ha decidido leer Rayuela, su obra máxima. Ya tendrá su momento. Lea este, y los demás llegarán por añadidura.

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CORTAZAR AT HIS BEST
Buy this book!
Cronopios and famas
Makes me happy.
Brilliant and boldly experimental

Cronopios and Famas
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0811214028

Book Description

Long out of print and now reissued in paperback, Cronopios and Famas is one of the best-loved books by Julio Cortzar, perhaps the greatest of Latin American novelists (author of Hopscotch and The Blow-Up and Other Stories). "The Instruction Manual," the first chapter, is an absurd assortment of tasks and items dissected in an instruction-manual format. "Unusual Occupations," the second chapter, describes the obsessions and predilections of the narrator's family, including the lodging of a tiger-just one tiger- "for the sole purpose of seeing the mechanism at work in all its complexity." Finally, the "Cronopios and Famas" section delightfully characterizes, in the words of Carlos Fuentes, "those enemies of pomposity, academic rigor mortis and cardboard celebrity-a band of literary Marx Brothers." As the Saturday Review remarked: "Each page of Cronopios and Famas sparkles with vivid satire that goes to the heart of human character and, in the best pieces, to the essence of the human condition."

Customer Reviews:

CORTAZAR AT HIS BEST.......2005-10-24

I'm an avid reader of Cortazar and I'm always searching for new ways of "discovering" his literature. I'm an Argentinean literary translator and I'm extremely happy with Paul Blackburn's translation. Blackburn fully grasps the ideas and feelings Cortazar show in the original work. I do believe it's the best translation of Cortazar's works! If any reader is interested in diving into a completely different world, Cronopios and Famas is perfect for you.

Buy this book!.......2003-11-05

Years ago I heard readings from this book on KPFK, and was quite impressed ( enough so to keep the tape for some 40 years) What a treat to find that it is available in paperback. Cortazar's sense of humour and sense of the absurd along with his poetic style are unsurpassed. If you have never read this one, it is a real treat. If I had to pick ten books to take to the proverbial desert island, this would be one of them!

Cronopios and famas.......2002-09-20

This book will open your mind like it or not. The great writing style serves to seduce you as it works on you. This is the only book I would say demandeds to be read two or more times at the least. Once don't with it you can't help but feel like you know something that the people around you don't as if some how you had an edge.

Makes me happy........2001-01-26

This is on my list of favorite books of all time; it is a great book not because it subtly describes the frivolties of life and not because it shows the persistence of human spirit, blah blah blah... It is a beautiful and great book because it makes you laugh - in its own great non funny way. It is not laughing out loud, of course, more like chuckling to yourself as you read it. You even get to identify with the characters of the book, with their weird perks and idiosyncracies. In our real world, the cronopios have a great cult following (at least online) - in the book, they are what people strive to be: worry-free animals in pursuit of happiness.

I read this book on a regular basis, mostly in short pieces. It is written in short chapters, so even when you are too tired to read anything else, this will cheer you up.

Recommended for all conoisseurs of inventive and experimental literature.

Brilliant and boldly experimental.......2001-01-19

"Cronopios and Famas," by Julio Cortazar, is one of those wonderful books that stands in a class by itself. It has been translated from Spanish into English by Paul Blackburn. The book is a collection of interconnected short pieces that often blur the distinctions between the short story and the essay; some of the pieces further share aspects of poetry and drama. Cortazar also incorporates elements of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and comedy into this work. Call "Cronopios and Famas" a novel, if you prefer; or simply label it "experimental literature." But whatever you call it, read it!

The book is divided into four main sections, each of which is further subdivided into several short pieces. The first section, "The Instruction Manual," contains such pieces as "Instructions on How to Cry" and "Instructions on How to Climb a Staircase." Cortazar invites us to look at everyday things and actions from a radically altered perspective; in the process, he seems to point towards an occult, or metaphysical, wisdom.

The second section, "Unusual Occupations," details the antics of a bizarre family (think TV's "Addams Family" as drawn by Dr. Seuss, with input from Franz Kafka). The third section, "Unstable Stuff," is the most varied and chaotic section of the book, and is rich in fantastic and absurd elements.

The final section of the book has the same title as the entire book: "Cronopios and Famas." In several short vignettes Cortazar draws a portrait of an alternate society populated by three different types (races? castes? species?) of beings: Cronopios, Famas, and Esperanzas. Cortazar describes the individuals of each group, and details many instances of social interactions between the groups. This final section of the book is reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," but more cryptic. Along the way we witness the invention of the "wild-artichoke clock" and get a glimpse of "GENITAL, the Cigarette with Sex."

Book Description

This collection of short and humoristic stories is a privileged introduction to the inexhaustible world of one of the greatest writers of the last century. Cronopios and Famas is one of the most-loved books by Julio Cortázar, perhaps the greatest of Latin American novelists; it is delightfully characterized. As the Saturday Review remarked: "Each page of Cronopios and Famas sparkles with vivid satire that goes to the heart of human character and, in the best pieces, to the essence of the human condition."

Description in Spanish: Historia de cronopios y de famas es uno de los libros legendarios del escritor argentino. Postulación de una mirada poética capaz de enfrentar las miserias de la rutina y del sentido común, Cortázar toma aquí partido por la imaginación creadora y el humor corrosivo de los surrealistas. Esta colección de cuentos y viñetas entrañables es una introducción privilegiada al mundo inagotable de uno de los más grandes escritores de este siglo y un antídoto seguro contra la solemnidad y el aburrimiento. Sin duda alguna, Cortázar sella un pacto de complicidad definitiva e incondicional con sus lectores.

Customer Reviews:

beauty becomes a book.......2007-10-19

Este tiene que ser uno de los libros más hermosos en la historia del género humano. Si quieres escapar de la realidad o mirarla con otros ojos, léelo.

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One of a kind
Julio Cortazar should have won the Nobel for Literature!

End of the Game
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Hopscotch (Pantheon Modern Writers Series)

ASIN: 0060906375

Customer Reviews:

One of a kind.......2004-02-03

This is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. Don't be thrown off by the "out of print"...it's still available--now under the name "Blow-up"... republished after one of the stories was made into a movie.

Julio Cortazar should have won the Nobel for Literature!.......1999-09-18

This is a great writer! He is funny, fantastic and humerous, and has great compassion and insight into the human heart, as witness his lead story of the collection. The movie blow-up (the original) was based on his story in this collection. A reader of a myster novel finds himself in the plot, a man becomes a fish, a couple are gradually moved out of their house by mysterous house guests and a young girl comes face to face with her disability in the title story, and her inability to face love. great collection.

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Libro de Manuel
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: Punto de Lectura
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 8466313036

Book Description

This, Cortázar's great political novel, focuses on the political condition of Latin America. It is a controversial blend of his aesthetic searches and his interest in the revolutionary movements of those times. This manual for the child Manuel is a sort of collage of press clippings, and among other things it reveals torture techniques used by U.S. soldiers in the Far East and juxtaposes them to similar tortures suffered by Latin American political prisoners.

The Winners (New York Review Books Classics)

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Discreet Charm of The Lottery Winners
Mindful
Ducks and Eagles
Seductive

The Winners (New York Review Books Classics)
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0940322315
Release Date: 1999-09-30

Book Description

The Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, called by Carlos Fuentes the Simon Bolivar of the Latin American novel, was one of the scintillating geniuses of twentieth-century literature—a writer of sly wit and immense sophistication with a keen eye for character and the workings of social life. The Winners is the story of a luxury cruise, bound for an unknown destination, which runs terribly amok. Funny, frightening, lyrical, and humane, it is a deeply satisfying philosophical novel about crossed lives and wayward love, as well as a brilliant meditation on the myth of the New World.

Customer Reviews:

Discreet Charm of The Lottery Winners.......2002-02-04

I read and enjoy Cortazar in the same way I enjoy Luis Bunuel films, in fact I think Bunuel could have made a wonderful film of THE WINNERS. Like Bunuel, Cortazar finds the things we accept as normal to be quite absurd but also like Bunuel he has a certain affection for those he makes fun of. All those on board the Malcolm are guilty of some sort of petty prejudice or limited world view but they all mingle and tolerate one another to a point. When things go absurdly wrong the lottery winners begin to wonder what it is they've actually won. Cortazar is an existential comic. A book which succeeds because it never forgets that despite our differences we are all bound together by our not knowing exactly what is going. With a little help from Cortazar we can see that knowing is just a pretense.
Perhaps the novel like Camus Plague is a parable with many possible levels of meaning. Not the least of which is the political level. After all Cortazar left Argentina under Peron to live and write in exile.

Mindful.......2001-12-14

I enjoyed "The Winners" though at times I found it a bit "heady". Its a novel that requires you keeping track as you go along. It took me while to figure out the setting, and what was happening (which means Cortazar did his job). There's so much symbolism and historical significance in his writing. I highly recommend the short stories collection "Blow Up" if you liked "The Winners."

Ducks and Eagles.......1999-09-22

Cortazar places his characters in categories I've found people all fit--one or the other--like it or not--we are each either a duck or an eagle. Ducks follow of course and eagles set new paths. Ducks may have easier less lonely lives. Unless of course they inherit wealth and power--in which case they must be very confused and inflict chaos on the less entitled. Eagles succeed in endeavors against all odds and are therefore resented by those they seek to please. None of us has an easy time co-existing with others. No one wants to admit this of course! This book encourages reflection that may have social value, but it doesn't offer much in the way of a hopeful outcome for the social redemption of mankind--at least not in this generation. Therein lies its depth. We must expect less from our companions in life. We're all horrifyingly flawed. Somehow we must find the path to honesty and forgiveness. The book--?--I couldn't put it down. Now I can't get it out of my mind. If you want to live in denial don't read it.

Seductive.......1999-09-11

To be known, to fit in, to be understood, to see reality, to share that reality and therefore validate it...this would be the ultimate in seductive offers...this must be the search that blinds us all...this may be the epitaph for the human race as we know it. We sought--we failed to find. We came, we never saw, we conquered ourselves. Cortazar manages to not only explore these Dostoevskian themes, but also manages to seduce the reader with his words, into believing they may find themselves answered by this book. Do they? Well, to start things off, have a drink. Then look at the boat on the cover every half hour and decide and re-decide if it APPEARS to be a boat that would float, or if it IS a boat that would float, or if it is a boat at all. Prepare to question your truths and to take a long look at the person in bed beside you. They may not look the same after you read Cortazar.

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Ably translated from Spanish for an English reading audience
Gimmicky at Best!
Welcome to strange familiarity
Enter this labyrinth if you dare

62: A Model Kit
Julio Cortazar
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0811214370

Book Description

Cortazar's classic 1968 novel about an unnamed European "city" is finally back in print as a New Directions Classic. First published in English in 1972 and long out of print, 62: A Model Kit is Julio Cortazar's brilliant, intricate blueprint for life in the so-called "City." As one of the main characters, the intellectual Juan, puts it: to one person the City might appear as Paris, to another it might be where one goes upon getting out of bed in Barcelona; to another it might appear as a beer hall in Oslo. This cityscape, as Carlos Fuentes describes it, "seems drawn up by the Marx Brothers with an assist from Bela Lugosi!" It is the meeting place for a wild assortment of bohemians in a novel described by The New York Times as "Deeply touching, enjoyable, beautifully written and fascinatingly mysterious." Library Journal has said 62: A Model Kit is "a highly satisfying work by one of the most extraordinary writers of our time."

Customer Reviews:

Ably translated from Spanish for an English reading audience.......2001-02-15

62: A Model Kit is ably translated from Spanish for an English reading audience by Gregory Rebassa and is a novel of fantasy, comedy, cities, snatches of conversations, brief meetings, characters whose lives begin at any moment and end in intense, brilliant encounters with others on a train, poignant love making, and even restaurant dining. The construction is free and open, devoid of the usual restraints of traditional novelistic order and take the reader on a daring and exciting new approach to life itself. 62: A Model Kit written so deftly and daringly by the late Julio Cortazar (1914-1984) is enthusiastically recommended reading for anyone with an interest in pushing the literary envelope as exemplified by the format of the novel.

Gimmicky at Best!.......2001-01-10

This book builds to less then nothing (for nothing can sometimes actually be exciting). Cortazar is impressive, no doubt, but his stuff is at its core is just gimmicks and mindtricks. No real substance. He writes like someone merely trying to impress his peers in his creative writing class, and maybe get laid by that cute girl in the corner. To say he influenced writers like Marquez elevates him too much. Marquez likely saw what Cortazar lacked and built on it from there. Fun to read like it's fun watching a magician, but that's as far as it goes.

Welcome to strange familiarity.......1998-10-16

To summarize this book would be to discredit it. It must be read by anyone who is interested in the quirks and subtleties that haunt human action. It is not intended as a book of horror, or a humorous book for that matter, but this is what one will find in the most honest and purest sense of the words. The author would be scandalized by the application of such sentimental terms, but as I am not Mr. Cortazar, I am afraid this is the best I can do.

Enter this labyrinth if you dare.......1997-10-16

The way in is through a looking-glass that is also a vampire-haunted castle and at the sa e time a city that is all cities. Be forewarned that once you have entered the Zone, you will never completely leave it. You will find yourself in its shadowed galleries, its furtive plazas, its unpredictable elevators, from time to time for the rest of your life. You will ask questions that will never be answered (what was inside the doll?) and you will be haunted by a realization that important things are always happening just outside your understanding. Cortazar invented the interactive book in Hopscotch, another highly disturbing expedition into parallel reality, but 62: A Model Kit is his masterpiece. Here is a writer admired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda and Carlos Fuentes (who once wrote, "Anyone who does not read Cortazar is doomed") but has been deeply neglected in North America. Other writers talk about alternative realities; Cortazar opens the door.

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