Final del juego

Final del juego is a collection of eighteen works of short fiction by Julio Cortázar.
The volume first appeared in Spanish published by Los Presentes in 1956. In 1963 the collection was first published in English Pantheon Books in 1963, translated by Paul Blackburn. The volume was reprinted by Vintage Books in 1967 under the title Blow-Up and Other Stories.

Stories

I

Continuidad de los Parques
No se culpe a nadie
El Río
Los Venenos
La Puerta Condenada
Las Ménades

II

El Ídolo de las Cícladas
Una flor amarilla
Sobremesa
La Banda
Los Amigos
El Móvil
Torito

III

Relato con un Fondo de Agua
Después del Almuerzo
"Axolotl"
La Noche Boca Arriba
Final del Juego

Retrospective appraisal

The stories in the Final del juego are representative of Cortázar's early fiction: "abstract, allegorical tales colored by the supernatural." A number of these early tales present "an alternative dimension" or "Lo Fantastico." Cortázar acknowledged that these tales were indeed "fantastic" in that "they oppose the false realism that consists of believing that all things can be described and explained according to the philosophical and scientific optimism of eighteen century..."
Literary critic John Ditski describes Julio Cortázar as a "disciple" of fellow Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, and provides representative samples of Cortázar's technical devices, plot structures and themes that characterize his work based on all the stories in the volume.