RAYUELA by Julio Cortázar

Within universal literature and Latin American literature, Julio Cortazar is a crucial author. With his vast work composed of novels, short stories and essays, he provided a way of making authentic and renovating literature. The case of his novel Hopscotch is no exception, it is a book that has marked a before and after in conventional ways of writing. In this way, in this lesson from a Teacher we will do a short summary of Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar, an iconic novel.

Index

1. Introduction to Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar
2. Hopscotch Part One Summary: The Side Over There
3. Hopscotch Summary, Part Two: The Side Here
4. Summary part three: From both sides

Although it is a novel, Julio Cortazar (1914-1984) thought Hopscotch so that there was no single way to read it. This author of the Latin American boom and a famous representative of the magical realism he published his work in 1963, in it he wrote a first page by way of a reading instruction.

There we are told that, although it is possible to read the book in a traditional way, that is, linearly, from the first chapter to the last, it is also possible to read it following an order proposed by the Author. With that, Cortázar invites us to start with chapter 73 and skip ahead to different chapters while reading. According to him, this would allow knowing more than one story within the novel.

Within this game, Cortázar is even more cunning and on the board skip chapter 55. With these strategies he broke with any traditional way of making literature and offers us an even more immersive and active reading.

Due to its disruptive nature, it has been classified as "anti-novel", but not only because it transgresses the conventional ways of reading a book (from the first to the last page in a row), but also for its aesthetics and the development of history and characters.

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With what we mentioned in the previous section, making Hopscotch a short summary may seem like a complicated task, since more than one story seems to coexist within its pages. For practical purposes, for this lesson from a teacher we will make a summary according to the parts in which the author divides his novel: "The side from there", "The side from here" and "On both sides".

With a third person narration, the first part of the book takes place in Paris, France. Its protagonist is Horacio Oliveira, an Argentine-born intellectual who works as a translator. The plot of the different chapters revolves around the relationship he has with her lover Lucía, also known as “La Maga”, who is of Uruguayan origin and has a son named Rocamadour.

Similarly, Oliveira participates in a group of intellectuals that he founded under the name of Snake Club, where they meet to talk about art, jazz music and the cultural world in general. It is striking that the group admires a fictional writer named Morelli.

In general, the chapters focus on the tension between Horacio Oliveira's relationship and “La Maga”. One of the great dramas that marks changes in this story is the death of Lucia's son.

After the crisis, Lucía abandons Horacio. This fact opens the doors for this second part of the book to unfold in a new setting: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although Horacio had the intention of looking for his beloved in Montevideo, he uselessly ended up living a lot of crazy things in his hometown.

In this new series of chapters we meet Manolo Travele, Horacio's childhood friend, and his wife Talita, who awakens in the protagonist memories of her old partner Lucía. The group experiences certain difficulties and ends up working in a circus. Later they enter to work in a psychiatric center, each one fulfilling different tasks.

In this stage we can get a little closer to Horacio's mind, His thoughts are cloudy, we can identify certain disorders, paranoia and vivid dreams that he has recurrently. On one such occasion, he can see Lucia playing hopscotch in the hospital courtyard. Surprisingly, it was actually Talita who was walking around at night.

In the midst of the confusion, Horacio tries to kiss her. Talita tells Manolo and he looks for Horacio all over the place. Consumed by panic, Horacio only contemplates suicide as a way out of the problems he has experienced. This section closes without us knowing whether he committed suicide or not.

We finish this short summary of Hopscotch knowing what happens in the third part. Cortázar called this section "the expendable chapters." In them we can know the different perspectives of what happened.

Not only are we given extra data, here the narrator takes his own voice and gives us his perspective on the story he has told us. With resources like newspaper clippings, the author proposes us finish recreating the immense painting that you have presented Hopscotch.

This is where many of the events related throughout history make sense.

If you want to read more articles similar to Hopscotch: short summary, we recommend that you enter our category of Reading.

Cortázar, J. (1969). Hopscotch.