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. ( )

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.

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. ( )

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. ( )

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
( )