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Hopscotch (Pantheon Modern Writers Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Julio Cortazar
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 48970
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Pantheon pbk. ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0394752848
Dewey Decimal Number: 863
EAN: 9780394752846
ASIN: 0394752848
Publication Date: February 12, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 `There is no such thing as a general idea'. September 11, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
`Hopscotch' is a series of journeys through interconnected lives. It is simultaneously a reminder that we each read the same words and form different conclusions.
I have read `Hopscotch' twice: following the instructions provided by Mr Cortazar. I will read it again in the future when I will try to be less concerned about where I am going and more interested in why I am undertaking the journey.
None of the characters appealed to me and yet I found myself caring about the paths they took and the choices they made. The death of the child, Rocamadour, was so harrowing that I almost stopped reading. But I did not. I wanted to see if somehow this event would change the lives that La Maga and Oliviera chose. By then, of course, it was too late.
`Everything is writing, that is to say, a fable.'
So what is this book about? Who is the narrator? Which points of view does the reader obtain? Is there order in this chaos? Do any of these questions have answers, and are the answers relevant? There is nothing neat about `Hopscotch'. The endings are ambiguous, the characters are self-absorbed and the reader is invited to make choices. The novel comes to life and the reader becomes a part of it as the ultimate destination is driven by the choices made.
This novel made me uncomfortable. Yet, simultaneously, I am awed by the skills of the writer able to create such a world, invite me into it and leave the choices thereafter entirely to me. I agree with those who consider this amongst the best novels written this century. But don't take my word for it: read it for yourself. A word of warning: do not attempt if you lack balance. You may fall.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
A unique book, a true masterpiece! April 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The books of J. Cortazar, J.L. Borges and E. Sabato - Argentina's finest contribution to world literature and culture.
 A largely forgotten brilliant mind delivers with passion November 17, 2007
Julio Cortazar is a visionary among writers. In this highly literary novel, Cortazar explores the nature of love, the significance of nihilistic wandering, and the ever-present metaphors of existence. Set primarily in Paris, Cortazar portrays a Paris teeming with mystery and promise. In this Paris, lovers meander the streets in search of each other and themselves. All but forgotten actresses seek repose in the company of strangers, and pseudo-intellectuals gather to discuss philosophy and jazz. Although the focus lies predominately with the protagonist and his lover, the vibrancy of place never seems so immediate and visceral as it does in this work.
Leaving Paris, Cortazar soon places the protagonist in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here, inmates of a mental institution are concurrently introduced with incrementally bizarre existential meanderings. Part philosophy and social critique, part disharmonious love story, this is a unique work by a master of the craft.
Oh yeah, and it also serves as a montage, meaning that it can be read in another order, thereby unraveling an entirely different and unique narrative. Highly recommended for the fanatic of Latin American literature.
A Labyrinth Not for the Systematic Reader... December 2, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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 September 5, 2005
42 out of 48 found this review helpful
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. Cortazar 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
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