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Book Cover for: A Certain Lucas, Julio Cortázar

A Certain Lucas

Julio Cortázar

A kaleidoscopic novel by Julio Cortázar, A Certain Lucas contains a series of brilliant, eccentrically interlocking pieces, by turns comic, philosophical, allusive, and always a pleasure to read. In short takes, we are plunged directly into the life of Lucas, learning about his patriotism, his friends ("a list of cronies large and varied"), his shopping routines (always in his pajamas), his favorite pianists, his battles with the Hydra ("now that he's growing old he realizes it's not easy to kill it") . . . his world is described in multiple quick parodies, with hilarious evocations of the latest trends: physical fitness, semiotics, cool pornography, and animal ESP. We are given glimpses and ultimately offered a strange, yet rounded portrait of a complete man, but not just any man. . . . This is a certain Lucas.

Book Details

  • Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
  • Publish Date: Oct 7th, 2025
  • Pages: NA
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
  • EAN: 9780811239370
  • Categories: World Literature - ArgentinaLiteraryWorld Literature - France - 20th Century

About the Author

Cortázar, Julio: -

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.

Rabassa, Gregory: - Gregory Rabassa was born in Yonkers, New York, March 9, 1922. He grew up north of Hanover, NH, graduated from Dartmouth College, Class of 1944, Phi Beta Kappa, and got his MA, and PhD at Columbia University after serving as a U.S. Army, Infantry, Staff Sgt during World War II. One of Latin American literature's most distinguished translators, Gregory Rabassa translated more than thirty novels from Spanish and Portuguese into English -- including works by Jorge Amado, Miguel Angel Asturias, Julio Cortázar, and Mario Vargas Llosa. Most notably, he translated Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Among his many awards, Gregory Rabassa was a Fulbright Fellow, winner of the National Book Award for Translation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, the Gregory Kolovakos Award, PEN. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at Queens College/CUNY and The Graduate School/CUNY.

More books by Julio Cortázar

Book Cover for: Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Rayuela / Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Blow-Up: And Other Stories, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: All Fires the Fire, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Rayuela (Edición Conmemorativa 50 Aniversario) / Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Los Reyes / The Kings, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Cronopios and Famas, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Save Twilight: Selected Poems: Pocket Poets No. 53, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: La autopista del sur y otros cuentos, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Cuentos Completos 2 (1969-1982). Julio Cortazar / Complete Short Stories, Book 2 (1969-1982), Cortazar, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Historias de Cronopios Y de Famas / Cronopios and Famas, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Poesía Completa Julio Cortázar / Complete Poetry by Julio Cortazar, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Rayuela (Edición Conmemorativa de la Rae Y La Asale) / Hopscotch. Commemorative Edition, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Cuentos Completos 1 (1945-1966). Julio Cortázar / Complete Short Stories, Book 1, (1945-1966) Julio Cortazar, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Hopscotch, Blow-Up, We Love Glenda So Much: Introduction by Ilan Stavans, Julio Cortázar
Book Cover for: Bestiario / Bestiary, Julio Cortázar

Praise for this book

I'm permanently indebted to the work of Cortázar.--Roberto Bolaño
Anyone who doesn't read Cortázar is doomed.--Pablo Neruda
He was, perhaps without trying, the Argentine who made the whole world love him.--Gabriel Gárcia Marquez