In five pages this book is reviewed in a consideration of the emphasis the author places on characterization instead of plot action and also provides a short synopsis of the novel. Two sources are cited in the bibliography.
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will, who have all winners of a cruise to an undisclosed location. Through the considerable dialogue, which is the prevailing characteristic of Cortazars writing style, the author slowly reveals
the inner character of each the voyagers, In this manner, the voyage, which does not actually go anywhere, but is cancelled and ship returns to port after the revolt of
the passengers, is metaphorically analogous to life, in which, like this voyage, the journey is the whole point. Set in contemporary Buenos Aires (that is, the time in which
the book was published, the early 1960s), the story opens with the principal characters gathering at the appointed meeting place prior to setting sail, a caf? called "The London."
Carlos Lopez, who is talking with Dr. Restelli, are the first characters introduced. It is later revealed that these men are both teachers. Rastelli is somewhat pompous and tends to
think of himself as a ladies man. Lopez is his younger colleague. Cortazars narrative technique is rather unusual as it consists almost entirely of dialogue. It is as the
reader is eavesdropping on their conversation as the two men examine the crowd, trying to determine who their fellow passengers might be. Cortazars omniscient viewpoint shifts to the next characters,
Lucio and Nora, and so forth until all of the players in the drama have been introduced. In addition to the teachers, there is Medrano, a dentist, who has just
left his lover; Paula and Raul, friends who share a cabin, but are not sexually involved with each other (Raul is gay); Nora and Lucio, young lovers; the Trejo family,
which includes a teenage boy, Felipe; Claudia, a divorced mother who is traveling with her young son, Jorge, and an enigmatic friend, Persio, Don Galo Porrino, an arrogant aristocrat and