Cronopios and Famas

by Julio Cortázar, Paul Blackburn (Translator)

Overview

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."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811214025
Publisher:	New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	04/17/1999
Series:	New Directions Classic
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	162
Sales rank:	451,653
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.60(d)

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.

What People are Saying About This

Pablo Neruda

Anyone who doesn't read Cortázar 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.

Editorial Reviews

Cortázar's ability to present common objects from strange perspectives, as if he had just invented them, makes him a writer whose work stimulates a sense of rare experience.

Time

This book is a golden nettle. Those who poke at it gingerly and are stung will still bring away tiny splinters of pure gold.
—Christian Science Monitor

Neil Millar

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.

Saturday Review