Final Exam: 1109 (New Directions Paperbook) - Softcover

Cortázar, Julio; Macadam, Alfred

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811217523 ISBN 13: 9780811217521

Publisher: New Directions, 2008

Synopsis

Written in 1950 (just before the fall of Perón's government), Final Exam is Julio Cortázar's bitter and melancholy allegorical farewell to an Argentina from which he would soon be permanently self-exiled.

In a surreal Buenos Aires, a strange fog has enveloped the city to everyone's bewilderment. Juan and Clara, two students at a college called "The House," meet up with their friends, and, instead of preparing for their final exam, wander the city, encountering strange happenings and pondering life in cafés. All the while, they are trailed by the mysterious Abel.

With its daring typography, shifts in rhythm, as well as wildly veering directions of thought and speech, Final Exam breaks new ground in the territory of stream-of-consciousness writing. Darkly funny--and riddled with unresolved ambiguities--Final Exam is one of Cortázar's best works.

Author of Hopscotch and Blow-Up, Julio Cortázar's (1914-1984) was a novelist, poet, essayist, and short-story writer. He was born in Brussels, lived in Argentina, but moved permanently to France in 1951, where he became one of the twentieth century's major experimental writers.

About this title

Review:

[A] major undiscovered work...a novel about Buenos Aires which one night turns into a Kafkaesque nightmare.--Harry Morales

The stream-of-consciousness narrative helps to make this one of Cortázar's key works.

Cortázar spoke of something more than novelty or progress--he spoke of the radically new and joyful nature of every instant, of the body, the memory and the imagination of men and women.--Carlos Fuentes

Anyone who doesn't read Cortázar is doomed.--Pablo Neruda

Final Exam is an intriguing book for any reader with avant-garde sympathies, or for anyone who--like most who know him--loves Julio.

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0811217523
• ISBN 13: 9780811217521
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256