Hopscotch

There are at least three different ways to read Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch; the first is to read the first fifty-six chapters in sequence (until one reaches a line of stars signifying "everything after this can be ignored" at the end of Chapter 56). Doing so will give the reader a frustrating, choppy, occasionally dense, tedious, and unengaging experience. Unfortunately, following the author's instructions (laid out conveniently in a "Table of Instructions" before the rest of the text begins) results in the same experience, only longer. While the additional chapters do help to fill out some events that may be unclear upon a "normal" reading, (such as making the narrative a little more linear, as with Pola), or flesh out a backstory (Morelli/the old man), or add color with excerpts from referenced works/relevant passages/letters, the novel still has the same problems as with a linear reading -- that the happenings seem pointless. Producing a boring novel about expatriate bohemians in Paris is one thing, but a boring novel that the back cover blurb pitches as "the dazzling, free-wheeling account of [protagonist's] astonishing adventures" seems to be a little more difficult. (Not that I am opposed to the selection of flattering back cover blurbs. Far from it.) It's not the flouting of conventional narrative structure that bothers me about this novel -- it's that all the flouting of conventional narrative structure feels so pointless. While the pace picks up a little when the action returns to Argentina, it's not nearly enough to save this.

City of Bohane

Even though Kevin Barry's City of Bohane is set in the 2050s, I wouldn't call this a science fiction novel. For one, it isn't clearly until at least the middle third of the book the time period that it's set in, and for two, even this is clearly post-apocalyptic, there's no tech here -- just nothing digital, and nostalgia for the "Lost Time", where something clearly Very Bad(tm) happened.

City of Bohane is at once cinematic and musical. Cinematic in scope, and musical in dialogue. Scenes are sketched out as though there was a camera panning through them, and we see cuts that are worthy of a screenwriter. Here's one character talking to another in a shady bar-cut-here's a third character plotting-cut-here's someone else stalking the streets. Bang bang bang. Not that there are any guns in Bohane -- technology has definitely reverted. The only photography is with "a medieval Leica", movies are on reels, and there are no motor vehicles.

A strength of Barry's is pacing -- at least at first. He's very good at ratcheting up the tension as a specific event approaches (gang war, festival), but not so much at resolving the situation, and a feeling of anticlimax pervades. There's a lot to like here, but this isn't totally successful.

Ordinarily, describing something as "post-apocalyptic" would send me screaming for the exits, but City of Bohane is interesting enough to keep me engaged. That said, I'm not sure there's a there here -- it's readable, but this almost reads like a prologue to something that never gets going.