The Switchman
A defining entry in the Top 100 Books. Sitting at number 57, The Switchman earned its place through a combination of craft, context, and consensus among the twenty-four editors who maintain this list. The companions immediately above and below it on this ranking are worth reading in the same sitting.
Position in the list
About this entry
A defining entry in the Top 100 Books. Sitting at number 57, The Switchman earned its place through a combination of craft, context, and consensus among the twenty-four editors who maintain this list. The companions immediately above and below it on this ranking are worth reading in the same sitting. The editors’ note placed it here on the basis of three criteria: durability across re-reads (or re-watches, or re-plays), influence on the entries that came after it, and the degree to which it could only have been made by the person — or team — who made it.
In the comparative table maintained by the Books desk, The Switchman sits within a band of 54 – 60 that contains some of the most contested swaps of the year. Editors vote with arguments; a swap requires three editors and one written defense.
From Wikipedia
The Switchman is an existentialist short story by Mexican writer Juan José Arreola. The short story was originally published as a confabulario, a word created in Spanish by Arreola, in 1952, in the collection Confabulario and Other Inventions. It was republished ten years later along with other published works by Arreola at that time in the collection El Confabulario total. The story revolves around a "stranger" who wishes to travel to the town of T. by train, but is quickly met by a "switchman" who tells him more and more fantastical stories about the train system while they are waiting.
