Divertimento
Novel , 1986
Alfaguara
Pages: 152
One of the main themes that inspired Divertimento, set during Carnival in 1949, is that overlap between musical, artistic and literary themes that comprises a central core of Cortázar’s works. His characters live in a world filled with an impressive wealth of cultural references, where the author’s most beloved themes emerge every now and then. Destinies become tangled and untangled and lives come and go, forming a web in which passions seem to be lived in a lower tone and big words are not necessary. When it comes right down to it, life is a sort of pastime that’s only occasionally fun, and should never be taken too seriously. Cortázar’s humour is present throughout this book, with a tone somewhere between nostalgic and ironic.