About this title: 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.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Catedra
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9788437604572ISBN:8437604575
Description: Good. Books have varying amounts of wear and highlighting. Usually ships within 24 hours in quality packaging. Satisfaction guaranteed. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ediciones Catedra, S. A
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9788437604572ISBN:8437604575
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Description: Good. No dust jacket. Signed by previous owner. Solid book except for a page or two coming loose from glued binding; pages are clean, unmarked; dj has mild edgewear but otherwise in good condition. Text in Spanish. 633 p; 18 cm. Libro amigo; 1502, 680.. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: PUNTO DE LECTURA
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9788466319058ISBN:8466319050
Description: New. A must-have classic of Latin American literature. Horacio Oliveira is an Argentinean writer who lives in Paris and later returns to Buenos Aires after a series of tragedies. Rayuela is the dazzling, free-wheeling account of Oliveira's astonishing adv... read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Edhasa
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9788435001458ISBN:8435001458
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Oversized softcover trade paperback, Near Fine Condition (Clean, unmarked text, slight shelfwear to cover, overall NF), (L2). read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ediciones Catedra, S. A, Madrid
Date Published: 1 Jan 1984 1963
ISBN-13:9788437604572ISBN:8437604575
Description: Very Good. Very fast shipping from friendly & experienced UK bookseller. Ł0.25 donated to charity. Ex-library, but in very good condition. 14 day unconditional money back guarantee. light. pp. 752. 18 x 10.6 x 3.4 cm. read more
"One of the best writers of the late 60's Latin American Boom. A jazz trumpet player, an ex-pat, and a gloriously gifted writer, Julio Cortazar penned not just some of the most well-crafted short stories i have ever read (think Borges but more urban nightlife and less intellectual workouts), but a novel that you can read from start to finish or in a pattern of suggested chapters which creates another novel. Brilliant? you should read it and decide. Tell me what you think. I re-read this book about every 5 years. It rewards re-reading."
"I read Hopscotch after I had read Bolano's Savage Detectives, with the vague idea that they were going to be the same kind of mystically weird, and I read Savage Detectives only after I had taught Cortázar's "Blow-Up," and I really only taught "Blow-Up" because I had read another Bolano story in the New Yorker, so it was an appropriately skewed progression through the wonderful sideways-sliding worlds of Cortázar. And I loved it--especially the gorgeous whimsical parts with La Maga (except for the horrible parts with La Maga). I love the short early chapter in which they are being chased out of the hanging fish market by French market-women who are trying to sell the fish rather than have them hang there in the air as objects of metaphysical fascination--but the fish are turning sideways and disappearing into thin orange lines, and how could that not entrance you? I am going to teach as much of this novel as possible in December, which is to say: we're going to end with the part where one of the members of the Club is making out with a redhead on the darkened stairs, and something alarming happens, and she flees the scene, and he shrugs and says he doesn't really care, because after all, she's Swiss, right?"
"I can't believe I'd never heard of Cortazar until this year. My brother and sister-in-law took me to Borders for Christmas so we could pick out books together as literary-minded relatives often do, and she suggested this. It has to be read twice (we all know it is only common courtesy to do so with the very best books anyway), but the second reading is mapped out by section number and has your fingers hopscotching their way around the pages. The skipping around is vaguely reminiscent of the Goosebumps series of my generation's childhood, but it presents the "Choose Your Own Adventure" theme more along the lines of "This Is an Adventure, But You Can't Always Choose Where It's Going". There are scenes when all the young characters are holed up in some hot Parisian penthouse that reminded me very much of the Whole Sick Crew in Thomas Pynchon's V. There were even experimental episodes in the book that seemed almost inspired by Ulysses (or drugs) that were challenging for both my brain and eyes to get through, yet they were accomplished by Cortazar with much poise and polish. The end."
"Brilliant, beautiful, heady and pretentious! A novel of metaphysics and deep sustained atmospherics that would sound diminished if you gave a linear account of it. It's about love, loss, yearning, art, identity, beauty, horror and multiplicity, and features mostly South American bohemian intellectuals passionately engaging (or often just discussing) the meaning of everything and nothing. It features characters with dual identities, a circus cat that can actually count, an insane asylum, The title has many meanings, one of which is that many different paths may be taken to the reach the same goal or place: and this book has a novel narrative device, in that it may be read straight-through, chapters 1-56, or by beginning at Chapter 73 and then following a "hopscotch" sequence through 155 chapters. Playful, engrossing and thought-provoking if you can relax and get over the pretentiousness of it, which was the biggest challenge I had. (Sidenote: "Hopscotch" was translated from Spanish by the amazine Gregory Rabassa, who also translated most of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's work.)"
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