Final Exam

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating stream-of-consciousness narrative novel.
Review: Final Exam is a darkly funny novel set in a surreal Buenos Aires. Juan and Clara, two students at a Faculty called "The House" meet up with their friends Andres and Stella, as well as a journalist friend called "the chronicler". Juan and Clara are getting ready to take their final exam, but instead of preparing, they wander the city with their friends, encountering strange happenings in the squares and pondering life in cafes. All the while they are being trailed by the mysterious Abel, apparently a former lover of Clara's. Final Exam features stream-of-consciousness narrative techniques and is one of Julio Cortazar's best works. Ably translated from Spanish by Alfred MacAdam, Final Exam will serve to introduce English readers to a major literary talent.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating stream-of-consciousness narrative novel.
Review: Final Exam is a darkly funny novel set in a surreal Buenos Aires. Juan and Clara, two students at a Faculty called "The House" meet up with their friends Andres and Stella, as well as a journalist friend called "the chronicler". Juan and Clara are getting ready to take their final exam, but instead of preparing, they wander the city with their friends, encountering strange happenings in the squares and pondering life in cafes. All the while they are being trailed by the mysterious Abel, apparently a former lover of Clara's. Final Exam features stream-of-consciousness narrative techniques and is one of Julio Cortazar's best works. Ably translated from Spanish by Alfred MacAdam, Final Exam will serve to introduce English readers to a major literary talent.

Rating:
Summary: Foggy notions
Review: Final exam is a hazy book . What the eyes of Andres Favas shows us is not only a foggy Buenos Aires but a journey into the labyrinths of the late 50's intelectuality. Where does it take him? nowhere of course... inertia is the result of extenuating thinking , so Andre and his friends talk , read , define and redifine life but go nowhere while a surreal city burns.

Cortazar always enjoyed playing with words ( much like Borges) but mostly he played with time. The book has brilliant words but also silence and a stream of consciousness flows through the entire book and through an impossible Buenos Aires , a constelation of metaphores and specially a fast and corrosive intelectually challenging book.

Rating:
Summary: Foggy notions
Review: Final exam is a hazy book . What the eyes of Andres Favas shows us is not only a foggy Buenos Aires but a journey into the labyrinths of the late 50's intelectuality. Where does it take him? nowhere of course... inertia is the result of extenuating thinking , so Andre and his friends talk , read , define and redifine life but go nowhere while a surreal city burns.

Cortazar always enjoyed playing with words ( much like Borges) but mostly he played with time. The book has brilliant words but also silence and a stream of consciousness flows through the entire book and through an impossible Buenos Aires , a constelation of metaphores and specially a fast and corrosive intelectually challenging book.

Rating:
Summary: Another Cortazar masterpiece!
Review: Reminding one of what would later develop into the style usedby Cortazar in "Hopscotch" and "62: A Model Kit,""Final Exam" is a nightmarish journey through Buenos Aires. As with 62, many of the most disparaging questions are left unanswered, and the reader is left wondering why this decaying reality seems so familiar. Another great novel from the Master!