Cortazar is generally acknowledged as one of the most important authors of the mid-century literary "boom" in Latin and Central America. A handful of writers, among them Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Alejo Carpentier (Cuba), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Jose Donoso (Chile), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia), and Carlos Fuentes (Mexico), brought Latin American literature to international prominence in a span of less than thirty years in a literary flowering that has not been matched in Spanish literature since the "Siglo de Oro" (the golden century - the seventeenth).

The history of the critical reception of "Axolotl" is similar to that of Cortazar's other stories and novels: an immediate popular success, followed by a delay of some years by critical success. Enrique Anderson Imbert, a fellow Argentinian writer and critic, thought Cortazar's early stories, such as "Axolotl," which is now considered to be one of his best, were...