Spanish/Latin America month, plus our group read: Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar

This year, the BBD has decided to go all 'round the world to inundate ourselves with literature from other cultures. Picking up well-publicized foreign authors does indeed happen more often than it used to happen, no doubt about that; still, American readers (myself included) can all-too-easily find themselves in an American reading rut from time to time. This year, the BBD is branching out in search of fine literature that even Oprah may not have read. (We are sticking to 20th century works to give this massive undertaking some sort of scope!)

In our Latin American and Spanish discussion, Rob (my BBD partner in crime from the beginning) gave us a brief overview of 20th century literary trends and a few authors we might like to check out other than the famous Gabriel García-Márquez. Among them are Roberto Bolano (Amulet, By Night in Chile, The Savage Detectives), Alvaro Mutis (The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll), and Adolfo Bioy Casares, whose Asleep in the Sun I'm going to give another go in the spirit of Latin American Lit Month. (If I can find it in my boxes.) Note: The book wasn't bad, I think I just picked it up when I was busy, put it down, and never got back to it.

This month, to kick off All Around the World and the new year, our group read is Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar. Rob describes his style as being an amalgamation of modernist, surrealist, and nouveau roman. The book is unusual in that it is two books in one book; one can either read it straight through, from chapters 1 - 56, for a linear story; or, one can read it starting from chapter 73 and "hop" around the book as Cortázar instructs at the end of each chapter. I'm reading it the traditional way, but many BBDers are taking great pleasure in playing the game. I find Cortázar to be a bit of an Argentinian Kerouac, employing jazz-inspired stream-of-consciousness riffs; we find the main character bumming around Paris, unemployed, with a female companion called La Maga. The scenes in which he is spending time waxing philosophical with the Serpent Club have been described by one of our members as a weird college party where the honors students and the philosophy majors have gotten drunk and are arguing in front of the bathroom, blocking the hallway. I haven't yet finished it, but all in all it promises to be an interesting read. See the discussion thread here.

Set for February is French Literature--if you have any ideas about 20th century French Lit for the thread, pass them along to Rob!