Praise
Idols invite respect, admiration, affection, and, of course, great envy. Cortรกzar inspired all of these feelings as very few writers can, but he inspired, above all, an emotion much rarer: devotion. He was, perhaps without trying, the Argentine who made the whole world love him.
Anyone who doesnโt read Cortรกzar is doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease, which in time can have terrible consequences. Something similar to a man who has never tasted peaches. He would quietly become sadder ... and, probably, little by little, he would lose his hair.
Cortรกzarโs last book is unexpectedly his happiest and most playful, both linguistically and with the vicissitudes of life ... Every page reveals that there is no end, because the end is to go farther, to cross all boundaries. Twenty years later Anne McLean restores the joy and liberty of the original to these autonauts. And it seems to me that Cortรกzar and Dunlop are still there, on their freeway, alive, happy forever inside a motionless time.
This is a special book, definitely worth reading, one that will alter your view of highways forever.
The journey undertaken by Cortรกzar and his wife and collaborator Carol Dunlop is quixotic in the largest sense. At one level, it is an adventure stood on its absurd head. At another, it is something graverโa mask of comedy concealing the enigma of an archaic smile."
The diary they left of this journey is charming, ridiculous, and more substantive than anyone has a right to expect.
Extras
Watch the trailer for the forthcoming documentary “Julio & Carol”:
See Carol Dunlop’s grave in Cimetiere de Montparnasse.
Watch a short illustrated film based on Cortazar’s tribute to Charlie Parker, โThe Pursuerโ:
Listen to a discussion of Autonauts on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Read an interview with Cortazar in The Paris Review.
Read Cortazar’s short story โAxolotlโ.
Read about how Cortazar’s short story โBlow Upโ was adapted into the famous New Wave film.
Map out your own Autoroute journey through France.
Read a piece (en espaรฑol) on Julio Cortรกzar on Pagina/12.