Bestiary: Selected Stories

I was very surprised when I received this book and saw how thick it was, considering that Bestiary should have 8 stories only. Indeed, this book is simply a collection of "random" stories from Cortazar, across 8 of his short story books. I included two pictures with the table of contents.And then I was happy, after all, I wanted a single book but received several. I was very disappointed when I noticed that there were two stories---Lejana and Cefalea---which are missing from this book. That is, the book takes 2 stories out of Bestiary and then adds 29 stories from the rest of Cortazar's career. On a utilitarian matter I should be happy but I feel very disappointed that this was falsely advertised in the book synopsis (which suspiciously only refers to stories on the original Bestiary) and on the Amazon product page (why was there no "Look inside" option? I would easily be able to check the table of contents then!). Understanding the book as conceived by Cortazar is now impossible. Don't buy it.

Cortázar's Bestiary is an anthology of short stories, originally written in Spanish and transcribed over the time by many translators.Cortázar doesn't ease you into his stories. He doesn't coddle you or offer you the luxury of familiarity. He lures you in and suddenly you find yourself at the edge of an abyss, happily falling over just to see how far it goes. Every story has something inhuman about it. A looming presence, a beast, a terrible illusion, some out of grasp, that slips the moment you close your fingers around it. Like those abstract arts which only make sense from afar. Like a big jigsaw puzzle with lost pieces.At the end of each story I had to stop. I paced around, trying to make sense what I've just read, pushed the thoughts in a corner planning to revisit later and picked up the book again. In one story a young man vomits bunnies, one story has four perspectives of two people.Bizarre. Surreal. Disturbing. Weird. Fascinating. Remarkable. This is how I portray Cortázar's works. Maybe you will find another set of words to describe what you think. Because when Cortázar leaves you to fend off his beasts it's up to you what you think of them.