Hopscotch

Day 1. Collectively, we've started reading Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch. Last night the Slush Pile, in slender but rather vital form, discussed "first impressions" in addition to Liz's "third impression" of the novel. Minutes from last evening's session...

1) The exceedingly long paragraphs we liked, but I added that it was no simple "subway" read, and that this little piece of lit demands almost complete quiet to enable the fullest reading experience. I admit I had problems absorbing the initial chapters of the book, all solved by not allowing myself to open it on the subway--literally. You can't read for a bit, transfer at Union Square to the N train, and then resume. This type of behavior will lead to rereading the same few sentences within the same paragraph for up to a half hour.

2) La Maga. We talked about how the name La Maga must mean something more than "the Maga." Perhaps, homework for our next meeting?

3) That all in all, at the end of the day, when we get down to brass tacks, by and large, etc., this book is about young people. Young people in their 20's. More specifically, young hip people, and once we get to the chapters and scenes where they're listening to jazz and drinking vodka, we can pretty much say, for lack of a better word, they're hipsters. An interesting thing to look at concerning the vodka infused jazz scene is that it is one scene divided among several chapters. I have nothing else to add besides just pointing that out since I have yet to finish reading the scene. Not sure if the full effect of this can be had by reading it straight through, rather than the "hopscotch" way.

4) I think I'm going to title my novel "Scotch Tape."