Often the boundaries between reality and fiction intertwine harmoniously and become so blurred that they seem indistinguishable from one another. In the short story entitled “Continuity of the Parks”, written by Julio Cortázar, the author manages to convincingly mix the realms of reality and fiction and present his audience with a literary puzzle to understand where these two worlds intersect really. Leaving plenty of room for the reader's personal interpretations, Cortázar's “Continuity of the Parks” offers an open-ended investigation into the process of writing a compelling narrative that effectively immerses the reader in the fictional world the author sought to create. This short story provides the perfect metaphor for the passion for literature that gradually becomes so immense that it eventually burns out completely. In order to convey Cortázar's passionate interest in reading and writing literature, it is necessary to emphasize his childhood upbringing where he was introduced to the world of literature from an early age. Julio Cortázar was born on August 26, 1914 in Brussels, Belgium, to his Argentine parents, Julio José Cortázar and María Herminia Descotte (Cortázar 12). At the age of four, his family returned to Argentina where he spent the rest of his childhood in Banfield, near Buenos Aires. When Cortázar was six years old, his father abandoned the family and he had to live with his mother and his only sister. At their home in Banfield, Cortázar spent much of his time in the yard. It was there that he would find inspiration to write some of his most famous future short stories, such as “Conducta en los velorios”. However, Cortázar described this period of his life as "full of servitude, excessive... middle of paper...... overwhelming that makes the reader feel like they are part of the fictional world created." in history. If Cortázar's audience reacts to "Park Continuity" in the same way that The Reader reacts to the novel, the end of the story will resemble a vivid dream where it becomes difficult to separate the real world from what he imagined. The true responsibility of an author is to create a world compelling and stimulating enough for the reader to get lost in it. However, getting lost can prove to be a somewhat dangerous act, as it is no coincidence that The Reader's novel touches on themes of murder and betrayal. The story ends by suggesting that the immersed reader is, at least metaphorically, on the brink of death. Cortázar implies that immersing oneself in fiction is both a goal worth pursuing and a means of losing control of one's identity..