Hopscotch, Blow-Up, We Love Glenda So Much: Introduction by Ilan Stavans

by Julio Cortázar, Ilan Stavans (Introduction), Gregory Rabassa (Translator)

These three groundbreaking works by Julio Cortázar—a major figure of world literature and one of the founders of the Latin American Boom—are published together in one volume for the first time, in honor of the centenary of his birth.
           
With his influential “counternovel” HOPSCOTCH and his unforgettable short stories, Cortázar earned a place among the most innovative authors of the twentieth century. HOPSCOTCH is a nonlinear novel about an Argentinean writer living in Paris; it consists of 155 short chapters that the author advises the reader to read out of order. BLOW-UP and WE LOVE GLENDA SO MUCH bring together the most famous of Cortázar’s short fiction, including “Axolotl,” “End of the Game,” “The Night Face Up,” “Continuity of Parks,” “Bestiary,” and “Blow-Up”. These are stories in which invisible beasts stalk children in their homes, the reader of a mystery finds out that he is the murderer’s intended victim, an injured motorcyclist is pursued by Aztec warriors, and a man becomes a salamander in a Parisian zoo. In Cortázar’s work, laws of nature, physics, and narrative fall away, leaving us with an astonishing new view of the world.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Literature, Ebooks

954 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 5, 2014

About the author

Julio Cortázar, born Julio Florencio Cortázar Descotte, was an Argentine author of novels and short stories. He influenced an entire generation of Latin American writers from Mexico to Argentina, and most of his best-known work was written in France, where he established himself in 1951.

Reviews

[Rick Slane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the short-stories more than Hopscotch.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read Hopscotch, not the other stories. I will definitely come back to this, and most importantly read Hopscotch in a linear way too. I cannot compare this novel to anything else, most obvious is Joyce and Woolf but it’s more poetic, wild and scattered at the same time.

“I never took you to have Madame Léonie read your palm, probably because I was afraid that she would read some truth about me in your hand, because you have always been a frightful mirror, a monstrous instrument of repetitions, and what we had called loving was perhaps my standing in front of you holding a yellow flower while you held two green candles and a slow rain of renunciations and farewells and Métro tickets blew into our faces”

[Karen Gurney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literally one of the worst books I’ve ever read: all the main characters do is have sex, so I’m skipping a whole mess of pages just to see if some real content to the story comes up: NOPE. Several chapters in, I give up Bc I’m done with skipped pages and not understanding what else the main character is thinking about, if he even thinks about anything else.

I originally thought the concept of Hopscotch might be fascinating considering it’s supposed to be readable in different orders (supposedly forwards and backwards and such). But I feel like this is like one of those action movies where you’re watching cars speeding & all these buildings exploding and at the end of the day, was there any real story to it?? No. Did the characters have any kind of development in morale or thought process? Nope. Did it expand my mind of how the world works? NOPE.

All this book seemed to scream and reek of is the author’s own obsession with sex. Call me quick to judge, but I feel like if I’ve gone 3-5 chapters in any book and they’re still talking about the same stuff they were talking about in chapter one, that’s all they’ll be going on about for the rest of the story. BORING AS HEC. Moving along, nothing worthy to see here. Going back to my classic literature where real stories happen and none of this 50 shades of hoo-ha’s and shameful premarital nonsense. I’m now MAD that I spent $20 on Amazon for this junk, who the hec rated this book 5 stars!?!?

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Checked out this book for Hopscotch. I read chapters 1-56. This is a large book, and I found it physically uncomfortable to hold and bounce around chapters. Hopscotch is missing at my library, and I'm hoping it is returned so I can re-read with the expendable chapters.

[Bonnie Ridley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes the novel Hopscotch, and collections of short fiction (Blow-Up and We Love Gwenda So Much)

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as companion to the Spanish original

[Charlie Newnham]

to-read

[Dylan Rock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the spiritual middle ground sitting between the Beats and Jorge Luis Borges.
I found Cortázar short stories much more the novel "Hopscotch" which makes up the bulk of this volume.

[Geert Bonamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely thrilling!

[Rebekah Burgess Abramovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

2/2018