All Fires the Fire
-
- £6.99
-
- £6.99
Publisher Description
“One of the most adventurous and rewarding collections since the publication of Cortázar’s own Blow-up.” —Los Angeles Times
A traffic jam outside Paris lasts for weeks. Che Guevara and Fidel Castro meet on a mountaintop during the Cuban Revolution. A flight attendant becomes obsessed with a small Greek island, resulting in a surreal encounter with death. In All Fires the Fire, Julio Cortázar (author of Hopscotch and the short story “Blow-Up” ) creates his own mindscapes beyond space and time, where lives intersect for brief moments and situations break and refract. All Fires the Fire contains some of Julio Cortázar’s most beloved stories. It is a classic collection by “one of the world’s great writers” (Washington Post).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this playful and scintillating set of fabulist tales by Argentine master Cort zar (1914 1984), characters are shuffled through shifting realities. In "The Southern Thruway," a makeshift community forms among drivers on a highway as a traffic jam outside Paris keeps them stuck on the road for weeks. The characters form relationships and assume leadership positions, but everyone loses track of each other as soon as the traffic begins to move. In "The Other Heaven," the narrator moves seamlessly between time periods, leaving his humdrum life in 1940s Argentina to roam the Paris arcades of the 19th century, enjoying "grog at the caf on the Rue des Je neurs," "the theaters on the boulevard," and the company of Josiane, a prostitute living in a "dime-novel garret." The collection's standout title story juxtaposes a Roman gladiatorial contest with a failing relationship in mid-century France, suggesting echoes and connections between apparently disparate lives. Cort zar's predilection for patterns is voiced by the narrator of "Meeting," who compares a Cuban revolutionary comrade to Mozart, both men seeking "an order" that will lead to "a victory that might be like the restoration of a melody." Cort zar fans will devour these affecting stories.
