Book Review: "Bestiary: Selected Stories" by Julio Cortazar

Julio Cortazar, author of the strange, whimsical and often dark novel "Hopscotch" wrote a book of stories and some of the best ones are collected in this fine anthology named "Bestiary" after one of the main stories in the text. I am compelled to say that this book was fairly difficult to understand because of the way some of the stories seemed to cut off at an abrupt moment. But, being in-tune with Cortazar's writing, I know that this is probably nothing new and that his writing is often expected to end in weird places where things are not fully resolved.

When we look at the themes of this book, the weird and existential is definitely the main one that pops out to us because of the natures of some of the characters. There is one story where a character vomits up bunny rabbits in a sort of sadistic and satirical morphing of 'pulling a rabbit out of a hat' and a type of anxious illness to which nobody seems to have the answer. This is only one example of the difficulty you could have with this text. But, if you are looking to start it, I would pay good attention to my favourite story in the whole anthology: "House Taken Over".

Why? Well because it is an easier story to read and still has all the strange qualities you would expect of the fantasist and philosophical Cortazar. We have the situation of the mundane to begin with, then we have the creeping in of strangeness, the unknown and the unwanted. Finally, we get left with a situation which is unfamiliar and uncomfortable that comes to an end without fully resolving itself. As I said, typical Cortazar. However, it bears little of the darkness of vomiting animals up or that sort. Instead, it basis itself more in realism and therefore, is easier to follow in my humble opinion. But paying attention to the way it deals with structure may give you an insight into how Cortazar writes. I had just wished I read this before I read "Hopscotch" - it would have made much more sense.

One thing I must say about Cortazar's writing style though is that the descriptions are amazing. Though the realistic description is often few and far between in this book in comparison to his novels, you can bet on the fact that the ones we will get are absolutely amazing. Let us, for example take my personal favourite story from the anthology and look at the way the house is described to us:

"How not to remember the layout of that house. The dining room, a living room with tapestries, the library and three large bedrooms in the section most recessed, the one that faced towards Rodriguez Peña. Only a corridor with its massive oak door separated that part from the front wing, where there was a bath, the kitchen, our bedrooms and the hall. One entered the house through a vestibule with enamelled tiles and a wrought-iron gated door opened onto the living room. You had to come in through the vestibule and open the gate to go into the living room; the doors to our bedrooms were on either side of this and opposite it was the corridor leading to the back section going down the passage, one swung open the door, one could turn to the left and go down a narrower passageway which led to the kitchen and the bath."

As we can see, there is a clear sense of self within the house that we have to look for in order to understand how this will change with the climax approaching later on in the story. This is the case with so many of Cortazar’s stories, whether or not they are realist or fantasist.