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Title: Hopscotch by JULIO CORTAZAR ISBN: 0-394-75284-8 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 February, 1987 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (30 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: What is on the other side?
Comment: It's been a while since I read Hopscotch. My memory of it is vague, but it made a considerable impression on me. It is one of those peculiar novels that has long, boring stretches, that you continue reading because you are convinced that there is a secret there, and you believe that you must persist in reading the book in order to uncover this secret. There are long passages where Oliveira and his little literary coterie sit around in Paris and listen to jazz gossiping and spinning out wild theories and being clever, and these passages can be unbelievably tedious. But you keep reading.
I recently read an interesting interview with Cortazar in the Review of Contemporary Fiction that may be of interest to some of you. Here's Cortazar on Hopscotch (Rayuela): "There have been critics who have thought Rayuela to be a profoundly pessimistic book in the sense that it only laments the state of affairs. I believe it is a profoundly optimistic book because Oliveira, despite his quarrelsome nature, as we Argentinians say, his fits of anger, his mental mediocrity, his head against all that because he is essentially an optimist, because he believes that one day, not for him but for others, that wall will fall and on the other side will be the kibbutz of desire, the millennium, authentic man, the humanity he's dreamt of but which had not been a reality until that moment. Rayuela was written before my political and ideological stand, before my first trip to Cuba. I realized many years later that Oliveira is a little like Lenin, and don't take this as a pretense. It is an analogy in the sense that both are optimists, each in his own way. Lenin would not have fought so if he had not believed in man. One must believe in man. Lenin is profoundly optimistic, the same as Trotsky. Just as Stalin is a pessimist, Lenin and Trotsky are optimists. And Oliveira in his small, mediocre way is also. Because the alternative is to shoot oneself or simply keep on living and accepting all that is good in life. The Western world has many good things. So the general idea in Rayuela is the realization of failure and the hope to triumph. The book proposes no solutions; it limits itself simply to showing the possible ways of knocking down the wall to see what's on the other side."
If you can find a copy of Cortazar's A Manual for Manuel, it is interesting as well -- Cortazar owned up to the fact that it was hastily written attempt to render revolutionary politics in an experimental literary form. I tried to convince the guy who runs Dalkey Archive Press to get the rights to publish A Manual for Manuel, and he wrote back telling me he had been trying for ages, but with no luck.
Rating: 5
Summary: Rich, Fantastic, enjoyable,.....
Comment: Sometimes, a reader has the pleasure and opportunity to read something truly great, something that changes the readers way of thinking permanently. I recently had such an opportunity. Julio Cortazars Hopscotch is a miraculous book bubbling over with allusions, philosophical digressions and, first and foremost, outstanding writing. The book's form is reminiscent of James Joyce, constantly exploring new ways of writing. To recall the mood of this book, imagine the cast of "The Sun also rises", throw in some Beckett absurdisms, metaphysics, Paris in the 50's, a lovestory and some jazz. This is one way of describing Hopscotch. But, the best way of getting to know this mind-changing novel is to order the book, log of the net and start reading. And, when youre done, read it again. And, by the way, this book is even more enjoyable with the accompanyment of either Mingus' "Blues and roots", Coltranes "Blue Train" or Miles' "Kind of Blue". I hope you all will get the same kind of joy out of this book as I did.
Rating: 5
Summary: Strongly strongly recommended
Comment: Hopscotch is a story (or stories, for it can be read multiple ways) of a bohemian drifter, written in a surrealistic style that is captivates and entrances. I read it last year (in Gregory Rabassa's excellent translation) for a course in Latin American Literature. Normally, at school one is on a time-frame, and is pressured to complete the assigned book at an accelerated pace. I couldn't, however, because I liked the book too much to skim through it.
My advice for readers is, don't be put off by the romance-novel like front cover and the back cover's whimsical plot summary. Hopscotch is far more sober, meaningful, and wonderful than this. On almost every page, there is some unusual metaphor or bit of language that brought a smile to my face. I found the complexity and symbolic depth added to the enjoyment in an intelligent way without making the text difficult or esoteric.
I recommend that you take Cortazar's advice and regard the optional chapters (57-155) as optional. I couldn't help but read some of them--they tempted me and they undoubtedly add layers of depth and meaning--but for the most part they are nowhere near as good as the first 56 and seem almost "tacked-on." Ignoring them cuts the number of pages down to 350 or so instead of 576, and makes the book a good deal more coherent. Then, if you want to, you can read the rest of the chapters, or pick and choose from them as you like. It was Cortazar's intention that the book be treated like an encyclopedia, to be opened up and read in any order. I'm not sure I agree this is the best way to enjoy it, but the beauty is that how deep one goes is always left up to the reader.
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Title: Blow-Up : And Other Stories by Julio Cortazar ISBN: 0394728815 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 February, 1985 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier, Harriet De Onis ISBN: 0374521972 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, Margaret Sayers Peden, Margaret S. Paden ISBN: 0802133908 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: May, 1994 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Aura : Bilingual Edition by Carlos Fuentes, Lysander Kemp ISBN: 0374511713 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1986 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Cronopios and Famas by Julio Cortazar, Paul Blackburn ISBN: 0811214028 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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