Hopscotch (1963)

I admit more than an unhealthy skepticism towards postmodern literary experiments, and the subject matter of Hopscotch left me even more so. I was expecting the worst forms of John Barth-style literary masturbation with the tedium of Bohemian drinking parties.

Instead, Cortazar spins a playful wandering story, and the innovating jumping chapters method, reminiscent of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, makes the events and moods of the story flow into each other very well. Each little chapter might not contribute to a 'story' in the traditional linear novel sense, but instead has a neat little parable-like meaning. ( )

Talvez o que mais me impressionou quando eu li esse livro é que todas as maravilhas que eu tinha lido sobre ele eram verdade. Eu imediatamente tentei relê-lo das outras maneiras, é claro, e continuei profundamente impressionada.
Quero relê-lo urgentemente, porque só a releitura é uma leitura quando se trata de uma obra-prima. ( )

What an incredible read! The concept alone is worth investigating, and it really does work. This is a book I've been dying to read again to enjoy it. Perhaps the story is typical of the Latin American writers who write about writers, but, being a writer, I enjoyed it immensely. Cortazar is a writer's writer; non-artistic types need not read him. ( )

I tried, I really tried. But Hopscotch is simply too boring for me to finish. I read somewhere between 1/3 and a 1/2 of the book and even that was a struggle. For the most part, the odd 200 pages that I read merely involved people sitting around and talking pretentious nonsense. I realise that's often "the point" but, personally, there's only so much of that I can take before I start to crave something more. I'm not afraid of challenging literature, this novel was simply uninteresting. I'm sure as a bundle of ideas it's a very interesting book but it's not an interesting story. It's all the more disappointing because I love Cortazar's short stories. I really expected something great here and it feels that all I got was an intellectual construct.

Oh, and the jumping between pages thing? Well, I'm afraid I have to deride that as nothing more than a gimmick. I'm sure, if you want, you can make up many pseudo-intellectual reasons for why the chapter skipping is so thoroughly brilliant but, for me, it did nothing.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote that: "Sometimes novels are considered 'important' in the way medicine is – they taste terrible and are difficult to get down your throat, but are good for you. The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but never forget to be entertaining and to have character and emotion at their centre." To my mind Hopscotch is like that awful medicine and, personally, I couldn't even take the whole dose. ( )

Hablando de vueltas de tuerca... ( )