62: A Model Kit by Julio Cortázar. Short summary

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The entire novel is a stream of consciousness of the characters, who live ordinary lives, with their complexities and joys. But the characters also have a fictional zone — a certain City, where they often meet in dreams and in reality.

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The novel is a collection of paragraphs written on behalf of different people who make up one small community, a company of friends. Everyone is connected to everyone. The book begins when they are separated and in different cities. The characters have a kind of secret place, the City, a place of travel and meeting. Moreover, these encounters take place both in dreams and in reality. The characters are intelligent, educated, cultured, creative and insanely lonely.

Juan, a translator from Argentina, is living in Paris and working for UNICEF at the beginning of the narrative. Nicole sits alone in a London hotel drawing illustrations for an encyclopedia, she thinks of Juan. Tell is bored in a hotel room in Vienna, while Hélène goes up in an elevator somewhere in the City.

The company of heroes sometimes get together in the City, and there they chat, discuss, and tell stories. They share dreams and can wander around the City. Marrast is hopelessly in love with Nicole.

In the finale, the characters come together again, only to part forever.