Rating: 
Summary: Julio Cortazar, "Hopscotch"
Review: "Hopscotch" by Julio Cortazar is a novel I read with pleasure and great interest. The plot line of this book is not direct. It is well written novel with a very distinguished style. A parallel could be drawn with classic masterpiece "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway. The main hero Horacio Oliveira is quite intelligent. His life style, his friends with long metaphysical discussions in the night Paris, his relationship with girlfriends- all of this attracted my attention, sympathy and understanding. It is really doesn't matter what personages of this novel do, but rather interesting how they think and what their internal world looks like. Julio Cortazar, through the well-written conversations, opens insight world of his heroes, their interests, and their view on life. Here, I could find some similarities between Hemingway and Cortazar. The difference, however, is in the described generations. The generation Cortazar talks about in his work are more close and understandable to me than generation shown in the Hemingway's novel. Self-analysis, or self-reflection of the main heroes in the "Hopscotch" is very similar to those of which I and my friends used to have. In my opinion, the novel "Hopscotch" is so attractive to many other people and me because Cortazar created metaphysical world of intellectual fantasies. I could not resist temptation to mention another novel placed on the same bookshelf with "The Sun Also Rises" and "Hopscotch" - the novel "Gantenbein" by Max Frisch.
Rating:
Summary: Julio Cortazar, "Hopscotch"
Review: "Hopscotch" by Julio Cortazar is a novel I read with pleasure and great interest. The plot line of this book is not direct. It is well written novel with a very distinguished style. A parallel could be drawn with classic masterpiece "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway. The main hero Horacio Oliveira is quite intelligent. His life style, his friends with long metaphysical discussions in the night Paris, his relationship with girlfriends- all of this attracted my attention, sympathy and understanding. It is really doesn't matter what personages of this novel do, but rather interesting how they think and what their internal world looks like. Julio Cortazar, through the well-written conversations, opens insight world of his heroes, their interests, and their view on life. Here, I could find some similarities between Hemingway and Cortazar. The difference, however, is in the described generations. The generation Cortazar talks about in his work are more close and understandable to me than generation shown in the Hemingway's novel. Self-analysis, or self-reflection of the main heroes in the "Hopscotch" is very similar to those of which I and my friends used to have. In my opinion, the novel "Hopscotch" is so attractive to many other people and me because Cortazar created metaphysical world of intellectual fantasies. I could not resist temptation to mention another novel placed on the same bookshelf with "The Sun Also Rises" and "Hopscotch" - the novel "Gantenbein" by Max Frisch.
Rating: 
Summary: A sad ending ...
Review: ... but not in the fashion of what Julio Cortazar called the female reader, but in the sense that, in an act of editorial indiscretion, the author failed to let go of the entire Part 3, making a bona-fide, in fact a supreme book matching Under the Volcano in emotional intensity into something with a large appendix of (sometimes amusing) existentialist musings. If you are into novelist anticlimax, or antinovelish (Cortazar's word) fettishes, go ahead and read part 3. If you want to go out on a high note, stop after you have done Part 2.
The above notwithstanding, Cortazar was a supreme talent. The story is a simple one, but Cortazar was able to make it extremely complicated in words, intellectual virtuosity, and existentialist absurdities. If the reader finds the start tedious and pointless, I can assure you that you will find your reward near the end of Part 2 (in fact for most of Part 2). Certain scenes and narratives were just acts of genius, and it was emotionally moving.
However, don't go to Part 3, if you do not want your emotional resonance deconstructed -- maybe that is the point of Part 3, but I am just a little too old-fashioned.
Rating:
Summary: A book full of journeys, games and of course, love.
Review: Cortazar is in love with words and music and love itself. Hopscotch is often uncompromising but always worth the pain and the labor. I have never read a book as often
nor had any book be so many books on each reading.
The dementia of life can be found within the strange
pattern Cortazar has created. Luckily, his brilliance both
seduces us into the madness yet also helps us make sense of it. Cortazar manages to be challenging without
being elitist and romantic without dipping into facile
sentiment. Reading Hopscotch can only be rewarding,
if only to help you draw the boundaries around what you
do not like. That in itself is a gift of awakening
Rating:
Summary: What happened to his Nobel?
Review: Cortazar is one of the most brilliant writers that has lived during this century. Hopscotch itself is considered by many critics, including Salman Rushdie, as the greatest novel of the 20th century. I still do not understand why he didn't win the Nobel Prize. More Latin Americans have won the Nobel Prize for literature then writers of any other place: Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz, Miguel Angel Asturias, etc. Could it be that too many Latin American writers have received it and the judging comitee has to give everyone a chance? Is this why Julio Cortazar was never given the Nobel Prize? All we can do is look at Jorge Luis Borges, another brilliant Latin American writer and know that the answer is obviously yes. For these two men could have taken on all the writers of the worldat the time and won. Who else can surpass them? These men were geniuses!
Rating:
Summary: One of the must read books for the truly literate
Review: Cortazar is one of the premier writers of the Latin American 'Boom' generation. And Hopscotch is arguably his best. Written in a revolutionary form where, at the end of each chapter, the reader is given a choice of the next chapter to read. Although the action takes place on the whole in Paris, the pages are infused with magic realism and Argentine culture. The translation by Gregory Rabassa preserves the language and feel of the original Spanish. Indeed, many say that if Rabassa translates a book, that is both a guarantee of an excellent translation and an excellent original work
Rating:
Summary: An experiment
Review: Cortázar tells us about the life of a group of bohemian artists in Paris and in Buenos Aires. Days and pages go through a mess of jazz, alcohol, cigarettes, literature, with no particular direction. There is no plot. In many ways, this books reflects a rather ordinary life, only that it can seem extraordinary if it is watched through Cortázar's eyes. This book is an extraordinary look at ordinary things, although sometimes it may seem too pretentious and confusing.
Rating:
Summary: One of the True Greats!
Review: Epistemological ecstacy! Spiraling worlds of tension and antithesis! A fantasticly suspenseful chapter involving two skyrises and a packet of mate! Hopscotch forces its way into your gut and never leaves, and that's just fine! If you're a fan of living and thinking and love and surreality and finding out about what "it" is, then READ THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: Strongly strongly recommended
Review: Hopscotch is a story (or stories, for it can be read multiple ways) of a bohemian drifter, written in a surrealistic style that is captivates and entrances. I read it last year (in Gregory Rabassa's excellent translation) for a course in Latin American Literature. Normally, at school one is on a time-frame, and is pressured to complete the assigned book at an accelerated pace. I couldn't, however, because I liked the book too much to skim through it.My advice for readers is, don't be put off by the romance-novel like front cover and the back cover's whimsical plot summary. Hopscotch is far more sober, meaningful, and wonderful than this. On almost every page, there is some unusual metaphor or bit of language that brought a smile to my face. I found the complexity and symbolic depth added to the enjoyment in an intelligent way without making the text difficult or esoteric. I recommend that you take Cortazar's advice and regard the optional chapters (57-155) as optional. I couldn't help but read some of them--they tempted me and they undoubtedly add layers of depth and meaning--but for the most part they are nowhere near as good as the first 56 and seem almost "tacked-on." Ignoring them cuts the number of pages down to 350 or so instead of 576, and makes the book a good deal more coherent. Then, if you want to, you can read the rest of the chapters, or pick and choose from them as you like. It was Cortazar's intention that the book be treated like an encyclopedia, to be opened up and read in any order. I'm not sure I agree this is the best way to enjoy it, but the beauty is that how deep one goes is always left up to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Strongly strongly recommended
Review: Hopscotch is a story (or stories, for it can be read multiple ways) of a bohemian drifter, written in a surrealistic style that is captivates and entrances. I read it last year (in Gregory Rabassa's excellent translation) for a course in Latin American Literature. Normally, at school one is on a time-frame, and is pressured to complete the assigned book at an accelerated pace. I couldn't, however, because I liked the book too much to skim through it. My advice for readers is, don't be put off by the romance-novel like front cover and the back cover's whimsical plot summary. Hopscotch is far more sober, meaningful, and wonderful than this. On almost every page, there is some unusual metaphor or bit of language that brought a smile to my face. I found the complexity and symbolic depth added to the enjoyment in an intelligent way without making the text difficult or esoteric. I recommend that you take Cortazar's advice and regard the optional chapters (57-155) as optional. I couldn't help but read some of them--they tempted me and they undoubtedly add layers of depth and meaning--but for the most part they are nowhere near as good as the first 56 and seem almost "tacked-on." Ignoring them cuts the number of pages down to 350 or so instead of 576, and makes the book a good deal more coherent. Then, if you want to, you can read the rest of the chapters, or pick and choose from them as you like. It was Cortazar's intention that the book be treated like an encyclopedia, to be opened up and read in any order. I'm not sure I agree this is the best way to enjoy it, but the beauty is that how deep one goes is always left up to the reader.
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