Preview of A Manual for Manuel Summary:

A Manual for Manuel portrays reality from two distinct perspectives or levels. On the one level it presents the objective reality of Latin America. This is done by repeated inclusion of actual newspaper clippings about political atrocities. On the second level it presents an absurd adventure, referred to as the Joda (which, according to Cortazar, means messing around), in which a group of political idealists attempt to kidnap an important diplomat. The idea...