Cronopios and Famas - Softcover

Cortázar, Julio; Cortazar, Julio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811214028 ISBN 13: 9780811214025

Publisher: New Directions, 1999

Synopsis

Cronopios and Famas is one of the best-loved books by Julio Cortázar, one of the greatest of Latin American novelists.

"The Instruction Manual," the first chapter, is an absurd assortment of tasks and items dissected in an instruction-manual format. "Unusual Occupations," the second chapter, describes the obsessions and predilections of the narrator's family, including the lodging of a tiger-just one tiger- "for the sole purpose of seeing the mechanism at work in all its complexity." Finally, the "Cronopios and Famas" section delightfully characterizes, in the words of Carlos Fuentes, "those enemies of pomposity, academic rigor mortis and cardboard celebrity-a band of literary Marx Brothers." As the Saturday Review remarked: "Each page of Cronopios and Famas sparkles with vivid satire that goes to the heart of human character and, in the best pieces, to the essence of the human condition."

About this title

About the Author:

Julio Cortázar (1914-1984), Argentine novelist, poet, essayist, and short-story writer, was born in Brussels, and moved permanently to France in 1951. Cortazar is now recognized as one of the century's major experimental writers, reflecting the influence of French surrealism, psychoanalysis, and his love of both photography and jazz, along with his strong commitment to revolutionary Latin American politics.

Paul Blackburn (November 24, 1926–September 13, 1971) was an American poet. He influenced contemporary literature through his poetry, translations and the encouragement and support he offered to fellow poets.

Review:

Anyone who doesn't read Cortazar is doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease which in time can have terrible consequences. Something similar to a man who has never tasted peaches. He would quietly become sadder . . . and, probably, little by little, he would lose his hair. -- Pablo Neruda

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0811214028
• ISBN 13: 9780811214025
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 162