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Hopscotch (1963)

by Julio Cortázar

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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5,090992,122 (4.17)137
When La Maga, his mistress, disappears, Horacio Oliveira, an Argentinian writer living in Paris, decides to return home to Buenos Aires, in a novel in which the chapters are designed to be read out of numerical order but in a set sequence.
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» See also 137 mentions

English (47)  Spanish (42)  Catalan (3)  French (3)  Romanian (1)  All languages (96)
Showing 1-5 of 47 (next | show all)
Hopscotch could irritate more than it impresses because it lacks any narrative action, yielding characters or merely voices—very articulate voices, to be sure. It is the epitome of what a modern anti-novel is not. When one is informed that the first half can "be read in a normal fashion" but the second must be read in the numerical chapter order 73-1-2-116-etc. concluding with 131, one can begin to question the work's aesthetic validity. Such a technique (pagination) was unsuccessfully employed in a French novel a few years ago. The first section of the jumbled 560 pages, to put it simply, is about Horacio Oliveira, who is described as "a conscious bum"," during his stay in Paris.

He is living with one La Maga and sitting around drinking and talking—about jazz, painters, empirical ontology, illusion, time, identity, the Sartrean bit, or what he calls the ""giddy discontinuity of existence."" He returned to Argentina in the second section, met up with a couple known as the Travelers, and went to work with them in a mental health facility where they played hopscotch in a courtyard. The final section, which the author kindly calls the "Expendable Chapters," is a back-and-forth between the two universes interspersed with quotes, letters, notes, and other such materials. Cortazar's extraordinary versatility as a language artist allows him to express a wide range of concepts, recollections, and supporting associations. The richness of the cultural allusions makes one think of William Gaddis' recognitions. Then there's wordplay in Spanish, French, and occasionally a tongue that not even pig Latin can match. Since nothing has any reality, we have to start ex nihil."" Having started ex-nihil, one goes nowhere. But it can be fun to relax and enjoy the play of language in this postmodern classic. ( )
  jwhenderson | Oct 26, 2023 |
A obra mais emblemáticade Julio Cortázar Lançado em junho de 1963 na Argentina, O jogo da amarelinha foi uma verdadeira revolução no romance em língua espanhola: pela primeira vez um escritor levava às últimas consequências a ideia de transgredir a ordem tradicional de uma história e a linguagem para contá-la. Cortázar retrata um clima de rupturas e incertezas, em um antirromance em que elementos da nova cultura de massas – colagem, história em quadrinhos, novela de rádio, arte pop, música popular, gíria urbana – e técnicas literárias experimentais de vanguarda – intercalação de relatos, experimentações sonoras e sintáticas, alteração da ordem, finais falsos, quebras, deslocamentos na narração – convivem em perfeita harmonia. O resultado é este livro único, aberto a múltiplas leituras, repleto de humor, de riscos e de uma originalidade sem precedentes.
  Camargos_livros | Aug 30, 2023 |
The premise of this book, with two different methods of reading is really fun and I quite enjoyed this aspect of it. The language used can be difficult to follow at times, so there were points that I found myself not knowing what was going on at all, while there were other points that I understood quite well. It was the difficult-to-understand parts that make me give it a 2-star rating.

The parts I was able to understand were very enjoyable, so I would like to eventually reread this novel again when I can devote more time and attention to it, because I think that would really help me to see the beauty in this novel. ( )
  Griffin_Reads | Jun 29, 2023 |
The name of this bk refers to its being structured so that the reader can read it either from the beginning thru to chapter 56 OR starting w/ chapter 73 & jumping around, Hopscotch style, in a prescribed manner that doesn't follow 1-56 linearity. I might've read it both ways. I definitely read it the Hopscotch way. Cortázar was an Argentinian expatriate who lived in Paris. This is a novel about his fellow ex-pats & their friends & their lifestyle of artistic & musical pursuits, drinking mate, good conversation, etc.. I'll forever assoicate this w/ the deep pleasure of discussion & study amongst passionate friends. It's particularly associated w/ a small group of intellectuals/readers in Baltimore in the late 1970s. ( )
  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
No pretendo convertirme en la Maga, pero me he sentido como ella a lo largo de las dos lecturas intentando descubrir de donde venían todas esas citas, con las malas traducciones del francés hechas por el Google translator, cuando en realidad el descubrimiento final es que para este viaje no hacían falta las alforjas de todo el aparato referencial de Cortázar que me dicen que está obsoleto aunque yo desconociera la gran mayoría.
Me dicen también que es un libro de adolescencia pero como yo no fui capaz de leerlo entonces, lo leo ahora y tampoco creo que eso haya pesado sobre mi experiencia con Julio, ya para siempre Julio.
Durante muchas sesiones pensaba que era el libro de la Maga pero es el libro de Horacio.
Pese a todo la retórica de Cortázar consigue atraparte e incluso muchos de los locos episodios que te envuelven pese a no entender exactamente en el momento qué significan. Seguramente merezca una tercera, o cuarta, quinta, etc., lectura pero ahora tengo que alejarme un poco de Horacio. Pese a la amargura que rezuma el libro, el humor es también una presencia permanente, sobre todo en la segunda parte.
Aún así, muy recomendable
( )
  Orellana_Souto | Jul 27, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 47 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (31 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Cortázar, JulioAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Pol, Barber van deTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rabassa, GregoryTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Information from the Spanish Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Y animado de la esperanza de ser particularmente útil a la juventud, y de contribuir al a reforma de las costumbres en general, he formado la presente colección de máximas, consejos y preceptos, que son la base de aquella moral universal, que es tan proporcionada a la felicidad espiritual y temporal de todos los hombres de cualquiera edad, estado y condición que sean, y a la prosperidad y buen orden, no sólo de la república civil y cristiana en que vivimos, sino de cualquiera otra república o gobierno que los filósofos más especulativos y profundos del orbe quieran discurrir.

Espíritu de la Biblia y Moral Universal, sacada del Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento, Escrita en toscano por el abad Martini con las citas al pie:
Traducida en castellano
Por un Clérigo Reglar de la Congregación de San Cayetano de esta Corte.
Con licencia.
Madrid: Por Aznar, 1797.
Siempre que viene el tiempo fresco, o sea al medio del otonio, a mí me da la loca de pensar ideas de tipo eséntrico y esótico, como ser por egenplo que me gustaría venirme golondrina para agarrar y volar a los paíx adonde haiga calor, o de ser hormiga para meterme bien adentro de una cueva y comer los productos guardados en el verano o de ser un bívora como las del solójicO, que las tienen bien guardadas en una jaula de vidrio con calefación para que no se queden duras de frío, que es lo que les pasa a los pobres seres humanos que no pueden comprarse ropa con lo cara questá, ni pueden calentarse por la falta del querosén, la falta del carbón, la falta de lenia, la falta de petrolio y también la falta de plata, porque cuando uno anda con biyuya ensima puede entrar a cualquier boliche y mandarse una buena grapa que hay que ver lo que calienta, aunque no conbiene abusar, porque del abuso entra el visio y del visio la dejenradés tanto del cuerpo como de las taras moral de cada cual, y cuando se viene abajo por la pendiente fatal de la falta de buena condupta en todo sentido, ya nadie ni nadies lo salva de acabar en el más espantoso tacho de basura del desprastijio humano, y nunca le van a dar una mano para sacarlo de adentro del fango enmundo entre el cual se rebuelca, ni más ni meno que si fuera un cóndoR que cuando joven supo correr y volar por la punta de las altas montanias, pero que al ser viejo cayó parabajo como bombardero en picada que le falia el motor moral. ¡Y ojalá que lo que estoy escribiendo le sribalguno para que mire bien su comportamiento y que no searrepienta cuando es tarde y ya todo se haiga ido al corno por culpa suya!

CESAR BRUTO,Lo que me gustaría ser a mí si no fuera lo que soy (capítulo: Perro de San Bernardo).
DEL LADO DE ALLA

Rien ne vous tue un homme comme d'être obligé de représenter un pays.

Jacques Vache, carta a André Breton.
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(From chapter 1)
¿Encontraría a la Maga?
(From chapter 73)
Sí, pero quién nos curará del fuego sordo, del fuego sin color que corre al anochecer por la rue de la Huchette, saliendo de los portales carcomidos, de los parvos zaguanes, del fuego sin imagen que lame las piedras y acecha en los vanos de las puertas, cómo haremos para lavarnos de su quemadura dulce que prosigue, que se aposenta para durar aliada al tiempo y al recuerdo, a las sustancias pegajosas que nos retienen de este lado, y que nos arderá dulcemente hasta calcinarnos.
Would I find la Maga?
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Wikipedia in English (1)

When La Maga, his mistress, disappears, Horacio Oliveira, an Argentinian writer living in Paris, decides to return home to Buenos Aires, in a novel in which the chapters are designed to be read out of numerical order but in a set sequence.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary
I don't have a plot.
Perhaps I can sell this book
with a trite gimmick.
(Carnophile)
Paris, poets, chance:
La vie de Bohème meets jazz
And pataphysics
(thorold)

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