Unreasonable Hours (Passport Books)
Unreasonable Hours is a collection of eight stories that combine realism with the fantastic to illustrate the heroism of ordinary people in an absurd world. In Don't Blame Anyone, for example, a man simply tries to put on a wooly sweater. But in the attempt, he manages to show more courage, faith and moral strength than many other more obvious heroes. Julio Cortazar's characters are all innocent: things happen to them; if they are responsible, their responsibility is hidden from them. Their only course of action is to follow the circumstances that fate, or chance, has set before them. With an excellent translation by Alberto Manguel, this is the first time these short stories have appeared in English.  --Midwest Book Review