JULIO CORTAZAR

Hopscotch (1963). A book river of 700 pages, and 155 chapters, which is given to reading in two ways, either in a linear way, from chapter 1 to chapter 56, or in the order given by the author, and which starts from chapter 73, to 1 - 2 - 116 - 3 - 84 - 71 - 5 - 81 - 74... to finish chapter 131. The chapters between the parts are quite alternate. Precise Cortazar in the preamble that those reading according to axis 1, from chapître 1 to 56, there, in a linear way, can give up without remorse the continuation.

The book is cut out in 3 parts: "Other side", "on this side", "all the sides". The last, which starts page 365 of the book, is the essay "part" of the book, whereas the two first are the account " part ". After the chapter 28, we leave for 22 chapters the story " part ", whereas before, there was an alternation between 1 or 2 chapters at the maximum.

Thus, if one chooses the axis number 2, the reading is thus carried out in a nonlinear, sailing way of chapter to chapter, stopping the story " part " to go on the essay " part " and conversely, and that on 155 chapters.

The essay " part " evokes reflexions on the novel, art, the literature, the writing in general, without inevitably that there is a unit in these chapters, or at least a continuity.

As for the history of the a story " part ", it acts more than one narration on the character who is also the author of the book, in his everyday life, between Paris and Buenos Aires, a kind of ambulation of a youth vis-a-vis at one time which moves, full with innovations, contradictions...

Thus jumping of chapter in chapter, CORTAZAR affirms that he wants to make the reader " male ", i.e. active, and either " female ", liability according to its terms.