Shorter than your typical short story. Everything was fast pace and by the time I reached the end I was confused. Where is the rest? Yes this is good but I wanted a tad bit more. ( )

The eyes of one of the greatest literary imaginations ever to set words down on paper -Argentina's Julio Cortázar (1914-1984)

Julio Cortázar, world-class author of numerous books of short stories, poetry, essays, memoirs and novels with much loved titles such as Hopscotch and A Manual for Manuel. If you haven’t read any of his work, you are missing out and that’s for sure. But there is still time, even if you are pressed for time. After you read or skim or ignore my review, there’s a link at the bottom to this very short story that can be read in five minutes. SPOILER ALERT! – my analysis is of the entire story, beginning to end.

A CONTINUITY OF PARKS
The Art of Reading: This shortest short story ever written by Julio starts out by letting us know an unnamed aristocratic gentleman began reading a novel but had to put the book down to attend an urgent business conference. Then, on returning by train to his estate, he begins reading his novel once again and the more he reads, the more interested he becomes. I’m quite sure we all have had this experience, the gradual grip and tug of a great book, being pulled into the story as we turn every page, appreciating characters, perhaps even identifying with one or two characters, and if the setting is a major city, walking along the busy streets, feeling the morning fog or midday sun. As any lover of novels and short stories knows, there’s nothing quite like entering a vivid fictional world crated by a good author.

Page-Turner: Once at his estate, our aristocratic gentleman (let’s give him a name - Basil) deals with points of business then returns to reading in the comfort and solitude of his study overlooking oak trees in a park. This certainly sounds ideal to me. Anyway, Basil relaxes comfortably in his favorite armchair covered in green velvet, content in knowing there will be nobody to intrude on his reading. Again, I’m sure we can identify; we all have our favorite reading chair and sitting position and favorite time when we can read without interruption. Not being interrupted is no small matter since when we are in our literary zone, turning the pages, an interruption is the last thing we want. Wait a minute! I recall another work of fiction touching on these very same habits of a reader. Ah, yes, Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. So, I suppose Julio Cortázar is in good company here.

Aesthetic Magic: Having absorbed the beginning chapters, Basil is now completely and totally into his novel. Every paragraph is progressively more pleasurable because it means he is living more and more through his book than among the nagging details of the outside world. Ah, that aesthetic distance, what has fascinated philosophers going all the way back to Aristotle – at the very heart of the pleasure we experience as we read about the harrowing tribulations the characters are confronting from the coziness of our favorite reading chair. The novel’s men and women might be undergoing the horrors of war, pain of emotional abuse, torments of romance, agonies of personal tragedy or psychic breakdown but for us as readers, it’s an imagined world on the pages of the book we are holding in our hands.

Fire in the Belly: Basil is engrossed in the drama of hero and heroine as they meet once again in a secluded mountain cabin. But this time the hero isn’t in the mood for making love . . . no, no, no, armed with a dagger, the hero has a different, more pressing hot-blooded deed in mind. It has been said many times – nothing juices a novel like intense passion, the more intense the better. And if there is a healthy dose of menace or danger or motive for revenge added to the mix, better still. Keep turning those pages, Basil!

The Spoken Word: Julio’s story continues: “A lustful, panting dialogue raced down the pages like a rivulet of snakes, and one felt it had all been decided from eternity. Even to those caresses which writhed about the lover's body, as though wishing to keep him there, to dissuade him from it; they sketched abominably the frame of that other body it was necessary to destroy.” You have to love that image of a novel’s dialogue as a rivulet of snakes running down the page. With two lusty, aroused lovers talking to one another, the words on the page can really crackle, sizzle, snap and pop. As any seasoned novelist knows, when the story seems to be dragging, throw in some fast-paced dialogue and see what happens.

Action Fiction: So much for words. It’s time for some action. As instructed, the woman takes the path leading north, the novel’s hero takes the path leading south, south to where there are trees leading up to the house. Since only the cursed enemy is at home, the hero has no problem entering, first the porch, then the chamber and finally a carpeted stairway, his lover’s words still throbbing in his ears at every step.

Metafiction: Julio’s story concludes: “At the top, two doors. No one in the first room, no one in the second. The door of the salon, and then, the knife in hand, the light from the great windows, the high back of an armchair covered in green velvet, the head of the man in the chair reading a novel.” We’ve come full circle with a character who takes his plot seriously – he comes to life to kill his rival who has been reading all about his passion, a novel reader who, in his imagination, has been making love to his lover. Ah, revenge!

This is but one interpretation. Please feel free to come up with your own. This fabulous short story is available free on-line. Here is a link: https://www.utdallas.edu/~aargyros/continuity_of_the_parks.htm
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Captivating read with an ingenious twist bringing you to an abrupt and unexpected end - the glass door that not only you didn't see but never expected to be there. ( )

The eyes of one of the greatest literary imaginations ever to set words down on paper --- Argentina's Julio Cortázar (1914-1984)

Julio Cortázar - World-class author of numerous books of short stories, poetry, essays, memoirs and novels with much loved titles such as “Hopscotch," “The Winners” and “A Manual for Manuel.” If you haven’t read any of his work, you are missing out and that’s for sure. But there is still time, even if you are pressed for time. After you read or skim or ignore my review, there’s a link at the bottom to this very short story that can be read in 5 minutes. Spoiler alert – My analysis is of the entire story, beginning to end.

A CONTINUITY OF PARKS
The Art of Reading: This shortest short story ever written by Julio starts out by letting us know an unnamed aristocratic gentleman began reading a novel but had to put the book down to attend an urgent business conference. Then, on returning by train to his estate, he begins reading his novel once again and the more he reads, the more interested he becomes. I’m quite sure we all have had this experience, the gradual grip and tug of a great book, being pulled into the story as we turn every page, appreciating characters, perhaps even identifying with one or two characters, and if the setting is a major city, walking along the busy streets, feeling the morning fog or midday sun. As any lover of novels and short stories knows, there’s nothing quite like entering a vivid fictional world crated by a good author.

Page-Turner: Once at his estate, our aristocratic gentleman (let’s give him a name - Basil) deals with points of business then returns to reading in the comfort and solitude of his study overlooking oak trees in a park. This certainly sounds ideal to me. Anyway, Basil relaxes comfortably in his favorite armchair covered in green velvet, content in knowing there will be nobody to intrude on his reading. Again, I’m sure we can identify; we all have our favorite reading chair and sitting position and favorite time when we can read without interruption. Not being interrupted is no small matter since when we are in our literary zone, turning the pages, an interruption is the last thing we want. Wait a minute! I recall another work of fiction touching on these very same habits of a reader. Ah, yes, Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.” So, I suppose Julio Cortázar is in good company here.

Aesthetic Magic: Having absorbed the beginning chapters, Basil is now completely and totally into his novel. Every paragraph is progressively more pleasurable because it means he is living more and more through his book than among the nagging details of the outside world. Ah, that aesthetic distance, what has fascinated philosophers going all the way back to Aristotle – at the very heart of the pleasure we experience as we read about the harrowing tribulations the characters are confronting from the coziness of our favorite reading chair. The novel’s men and women might be undergoing the horrors of war, pain of emotional abuse, torments of romance, agonies of personal tragedy or psychic breakdown but for us as readers, it’s an imagined world on the pages of the book we are holding in our hands.

Fire in the Belly: Basil is engrossed in the drama of hero and heroine as they meet once again in a secluded mountain cabin. But this time the hero isn’t in the mood for making love . . . no, no, no, armed with a dagger, the hero has a different, more pressing hot-blooded deed in mind. It has been said many times – nothing juices a novel like intense passion, the more intense the better. And if there is a healthy dose of menace or danger or motive for revenge added to the mix, better still. Keep turning those pages, Basil!

The Spoken Word: Julio’s story continues: “A lustful, panting dialogue raced down the pages like a rivulet of snakes, and one felt it had all been decided from eternity. Even to those caresses which writhed about the lover's body, as though wishing to keep him there, to dissuade him from it; they sketched abominably the frame of that other body it was necessary to destroy.” You have to love that image of a novel’s dialogue as a rivulet of snakes running down the page. With two lusty, aroused lovers talking to one another, the words on the page can really crackle, sizzle, snap and pop. As any seasoned novelist knows, when the story seems to be dragging, throw in some fast-paced dialogue and see what happens.

Action Fiction: So much for words. It’s time for some action. As instructed, the woman takes the path leading north, the novel’s hero takes the path leading south, south to where there are trees leading up to the house. Since only the cursed enemy is at home, the hero has no problem entering, first the porch, then the chamber and finally a carpeted stairway, his lover’s words still throbbing in his ears at every step.

Metafiction: Julio’s story concludes: “At the top, two doors. No one in the first room, no one in the second. The door of the salon, and then, the knife in hand, the light from the great windows, the high back of an armchair covered in green velvet, the head of the man in the chair reading a novel.” We’ve come full circle with a character who takes his plot seriously – he comes to life to kill his rival who has been reading all about his passion, a novel reader who, in his imagination, has been making love to his lover. Ah, revenge!

This is but one interpretation. Please feel free to come up with your own. This fabulous short story is available free on-line. Here is a link: https://www.utdallas.edu/~aargyros/continuity_of_the_parks.htm
( )