A review by papelgren
Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar

5.0

This book is most likely a masterpiece. I'll be revisiting it down the line, hopefully with a book of annotations to help me sift through the countless references, puns, language games in French, Latin, and translated Spanish, as well as helping me figure out what actually happened, and who may or may not be figments of the writers' imagination (Cortazar or Morelli?) or the characters' imagination or my imagination. The book had an uncanny way of channeling events and books in my immediate life. It was offputting how many times it referenced things talked about in the book I finished just before this one (Gödel, Escher, Bach, a book written long after Hopscotch), and how many times it seemed to comment on thoughts and deeds I had or did the week of reading a passage. There is magic in this book, there are games played that are hilarious, cruel, clever, and profane, and there is a careless rigor only seen in the most elite writers of the past century and a half. It made me pine to know Spanish better so I could read it in the original language. But Cortazar's mind is so far passed mine in any language perhaps that wouldn't matter.