Rating: 
Summary: Cortazar is great as always despite the translation...
Review: "Anyone who doesn't read Cortázar is doomed. Not to read him is a grave invisible disease which in time can have terrible consequences. Something similar to a man who had never tasted peaches. He would be quietly getting sadder, noticeably paler, and probably little by little, he would lose his hair. I don't want those things to happen to me, and so I greedily devour all the fabrications, myths, contradictions, and mortal games of the great Julio Cortázar." Pablo Neruda
Rating: 
Summary: A fertile imagination at work.
Review:
`` A short story can be taken in at a single glance while a work of three hundred pages depends on padding, on pages that are mere nexuses between one part and another. On the other hand, it is possible for everything to appear essential in a short story.''
- Jorge Luis Borges.
Besides being considered among the great modern Latin American authors, Cortazar is also a poet, translator and an amateur jazz musician. This collection of short stories provides us a glimpse of his fertile imagination.
In one story the protagonist's mind gets trapped into a fish's body, much like Kafka's `Metamorphosis'. In `Blow-up', a photograph assumes real life proportions, reminiscent of Poe's fantastic works. The `Letter to a Young Lady in Paris' conveys the perplexity of a young woman who vomits up rabbits. `Continuity of Parks' is a Borgesian tale where the protagonist becomes part of the murder mystery he is reading.
`` In literature it is only necessary to outline the steps. Let the people dance.'' says Anthony Kerrigan in preface to `Ficciones'. This collection is one such piece of literature. His other important work is `Hopscotch'. Along with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie, he can claim to be the author of some of the best pieces of magic realism.
Rating:
Summary: A fertile imagination at work.
Review:
`` A short story can be taken in at a single glance while a work of three hundred pages depends on padding, on pages that are mere nexuses between one part and another. On the other hand, it is possible for everything to appear essential in a short story.''
- Jorge Luis Borges. Besides being considered among the great modern Latin American authors, Cortazar is also a poet, translator and an amateur jazz musician. This collection of short stories provides us a glimpse of his fertile imagination. In one story the protagonist's mind gets trapped into a fish's body, much like Kafka's `Metamorphosis'. In `Blow-up', a photograph assumes real life proportions, reminiscent of Poe's fantastic works. The `Letter to a Young Lady in Paris' conveys the perplexity of a young woman who vomits up rabbits. `Continuity of Parks' is a Borgesian tale where the protagonist becomes part of the murder mystery he is reading. `` In literature it is only necessary to outline the steps. Let the people dance.'' says Anthony Kerrigan in preface to `Ficciones'. This collection is one such piece of literature. His other important work is `Hopscotch'. Along with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie, he can claim to be the author of some of the best pieces of magic realism.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular collection!
Review: Cortazar, when on his game, is on the very short list of great story writers. He has a keen eye for detail and a knack for beginning a story somewhat in the middle and letting the reader catch up. "Continuity of Parks" is a roller coaster in three pages with great visual details (only "Grafitti" is a better story by him). "The Night Face Up" is ingenious. "House Taken Over" is a great example of what he doesn't tell you being more important than what he does tell you! Expect the unexpected and possibly bizarre. Cortazar plays by no rules and knows no boundaries.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular collection!
Review: Cortazar, when on his game, is on the very short list of great story writers. He has a keen eye for detail and a knack for beginning a story somewhat in the middle and letting the reader catch up. "Continuity of Parks" is a roller coaster in three pages with great visual details (only "Grafitti" is a better story by him). "The Night Face Up" is ingenious. "House Taken Over" is a great example of what he doesn't tell you being more important than what he does tell you! Expect the unexpected and possibly bizarre. Cortazar plays by no rules and knows no boundaries.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful collection of mind blowing stories
Review: I read some of Cortazar's stories for a class in fantastic literature. From the moment I started reading the first story in this collection, Axolotl, I was hooked. Cortazar is such an amzing writer, has such a beautiful way of phrasing things and his stories always involve the unexpected and are completely up to many an interpretation. Make sure to read House Taken Over and Continuity of Parks, those two were my favorites. If you can, also obtain a copy of his story All Fires the Fire, another great fantastic tale. In short, Cortazar is an amazing modern writer that everyone should explore.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful collection of mind blowing stories
Review: I read some of Cortazar's stories for a class in fantastic literature. From the moment I started reading the first story in this collection, Axolotl, I was hooked. Cortazar is such an amzing writer, has such a beautiful way of phrasing things and his stories always involve the unexpected and are completely up to many an interpretation. Make sure to read House Taken Over and Continuity of Parks, those two were my favorites. If you can, also obtain a copy of his story All Fires the Fire, another great fantastic tale. In short, Cortazar is an amazing modern writer that everyone should explore.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous stories about "unreality" of reality.
Review: If you want to read creative, inventive, fabulous stories of the unreality of everyday life, you must look back into Latin American Literature for the past 30-40 years. It is all there, Borges, Cortazar, sabato, Garcia Marquez, their stories are so spectacular, they make all other literature pale in comparison, all of Cortazars short stories are wonderful, a collected edition of all his works should come out. they show they magic, pathos, and power of what happens when someone walks down a street, boards a train, and enters another reality, sometimes just be reading a book.
Rating:
Summary: Blow-Up : And Other Stories
Review: Its something between reality and dream its like a Kurosawa movie. Don't read all the stories in one go. But read one every weekend and think about it over the whole week. One of the best in Latin American literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Reading......Bad Translation
Review: JC is a fantastic writer. I love his material, and have read his work extensively in spanish during my years living in Argentina. I recently bought Blow-up and Other Stories, and was disappointed to find that the translation was terrible. It was very disjointed, and I even thought there were some gramatical errors . It detracted considerably from the story, and the enjoyment of reading. I realise that the style of writing is difficult to translate, but I'm sure it is possible. Are there other translations of the book? Is there a review planned for the present version? Regards James
| 
