First Line Friday
Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortazar
Blow-Up and Other Stories by Argentinian Julio Cortazar (translated by Paul Blackburn) is one of my all-time favorite collections. Here are the first lines of each story.
“Axolotl”
There was a time when I thought a great deal about the axolotls.
“House Taken Over”
We liked the house because, apart from its being old and spacious (in a day when old houses go down for a profitable auction of their construction materials), it kept the memories of great-grandparents, our paternal grandfather, our parents and the whole of childhood.
“The Distances”
Last night it happened again, I so tired of bracelets and cajoleries, of pink champagne and Renato Vines’ face, oh that face like a spluttering seal, that picture of Dorian Gray in the last stages.
“The Idol of the Cyclades”
“It strikes me the same whether you listen to me or not,” Somoza said.
“Letter to a Young Lady in Paris”
Andrea, I didn’t want to come live in your apartment in the calle Suipacha.
“A Yellow Flower”
We are immortal, I know it sounds like a joke.
“Continuity of Parks”
He had begun to read the novel a few days before.
“The Night Face Up”
Halfway down the long hotel vestibule, he thought that probably he was going to be late, and hurried on into the street to get out his motorcycle from the corner where the next-door superintendent let him keep it.
“Bestiary”
Between the last spoonful of rice pudding with milk (very little cinnamon, a shame) and the goodnight kisses before going up to bed, there was a tinkling in the telephone room and Isabel hung around until Ines came from answering it and said something into their mother’s ear.
“The Gates of Heaven”
Jose Maria came at eight with the information, hardly beating around the bush at all he told me that Celina had just died.
“Blow-Up”
It’ll never be known how this has to be told, in the first person or in the second, using the third person plural or continually inventing modes that will serve for nothing.
“End of the Game”
Letitia, Holanda and I used to play by the Argentine Central tracks during the hot weather, hoping that Mama and Aunt Ruth would go up to their siesta so that we could get out past the white gate.
“At Your Service”
For some time now it’s been a problem lighting the fire.
“The Pursuer”
Dedee had called me in the afternoon saying that Johnny wasn’t very well, and I’d gone to the hotel right away.
“Secret Weapons”
Strange how people are under the impression that making a bed is the same as making a bed, that to shake hands is always the same as shaking hands, that opening a can of sardines is to open the same can of sardines ad infinitum.
Buy Blow-Up and Other Stories here.
Buy River of Dolls and Other Stories by Suzanne Kamata here.
Buy The Beautiful One Has Come by Suzanne Kamata here.
Buy Owls in the Ginza (and other stories from a life in Japan) here.