Cortázar was not yet very well known when he published “The Pursuer” in 1959, and the story met with mixed reactions in the press. Stanley Kauffman, for example, called the story “outstandingly the worst [in End of the Game, and Other Stories]: a juvenile and crude story,” in his New Republic review of the English translation, although Kauffman praised the other stories in the collection. As Cortázar developed a reputation as a masterful and influential writer, however, the story’s reputation benefited, and it came to be considered one of his classic texts.

Some critical analyses of “The Pursuer” have tended to focus on its portrayal of Charlie Parker and bebop music, as well as its theme of the relationship between the artist and the critic. Robert W. Felkel, for example, suggests in his article “The Historical Dimension in Julio Cortázar’s ‘The Pursuer’” that Charlie Parker’s life corresponds in almost every way to that of Johnny Carter. Other critics, such as Doris Sommer in her essay “Pursuing a Perfect Present,” discuss the relationship of the critic and the artist as it relates to the story’s innovations in narrative structure: “Bruno needs the unfettered genius as the featured subject of an academic career and the catalyst for his own probing performance, while Johnny needs Bruno’s sensible attentions in order to survive.”