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vonnegutian's review
4.0
Continuing my year of ‘reading books by authors I own a few of but haven’t read yet’ Julio Cortazar became the latest reputable penman to grace my currently reading. I chose The Winners for starters as it was a full length novel and not his most famous, which seemed to make a sensible ‘first’. It took few chapters to realise the quality of Cortazar ‘s writing in this ambitious project about a group of Argentinian citizens who have gathered together for a free cruise won in a state lottery. Both reader and passengers are kept somewhat in the dark as to the reasons and source of their ‘fortune’ but suspicions and hostilities are constantly close to the surface as their ‘holiday’ progresses. In fear of trivialising this seemingly allegorical tale, I hesitantly draw comparisons to Big Brother (both game show and Orwellian captive state) when the guests are told that only parts of the ship are accessible to them for reasons I shall not disclose. Like the game show, both the restrictive set-up and melting pot of personalities, serve for interesting social dynamics amongst the various passengers which on the whole, Cortazar skilfully conveys (a group I assume is a quintessential microcosm of Argentinian society at the time of writing). He juggles the vibrant and varied cast of characters well, attempting to display the changes and personal growth they experience in response to events on the ship as the trip progresses. He does this satisfactorily, especially in quite a short amount of pages (400ish) but I guess a weakness to The Winners is that, literally speaking, the three days that the story spans seems too short to induce significant reflection/affirmation/action/drama for the ‘trapped’ passengers - or perhaps I just belong in the ‘just leaves thing be’ camp. All in all though, it is a solid, interesting read which has whetted my appetite for more of his books.
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