Autonauts of the Cosmoroute - Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop

Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseilles by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop / ISBN 9780979333002 / 350-page paperback with flaps from Archipelago Books

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Autonauts of the Cosmoroute is a travelogue, a love story, an irreverent collection of visual and verbal snapshots. In May 1982, Julio Cortázar and Carol Dunlop climbed aboard Fafner, their VW camper van, and embarked on an exploration of the uncharted territory of the Paris-Marseilles freeway. It was a route they'd covered before, usually in about ten hours, but his time they loaded up with supplies and prepared for an arduous voyage of thirty-three days without leaving the autoroute. Along the way they would uncover the hidden side of the freeway and record the trip’s vital minutiae with light-hearted abandon. At roadside rest areas, armed with typewriters, cameras, and mutual affection, the authors composed this book.

"The journey undertaken by Cortázar and his wife and collaborator Carol Dunlop is quixotic in the largest sense. At one level, it is an adventure stood on its absurd head. At another, it is something graver—a mask of comedy concealing the enigma of an archaic smile." —Richard Eder, The Los Angeles Times Book Review