BETRAYED BY RITA HAYWORTH

by Manuel Puig ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 1971

A Spanish nouvelle vague novel that follows Toto, a brilliant and likable young Argentinian obsessed at various times with dolls' clothing, movies, and his mother, from somewhat before his birth (1933) to 1948, when he is halfway to becoming a full-fledged Latin American revolutionary and maybe a fag. The plot has to be extracted from a melange of conversations, diaries, essays (""The Movie I Liked Best"" by Jose [Toto] Casals) and first person stream-of-consciousness monologues from the friends, relatives, and enemies who wander in and out of Toto's life, interested both in him and his de facto brother Hector, but primarily in themselves. The action, which occurs in the gaps between rather than within the chronologically spaced chapters, is less important than the flow of the mind as it contemplates the day's events, plans for the next, and rationalizes the past. This is an ambitious and unusual novel of young boyhood, well worth the effort of deciphering the tape-recorder dialogue (sans who-said-what) and 20 page paragraphs of Faulknerian monologues of minds less anxious to further the plot of a novel than to do their own thing.

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1971

ISBN: 1564785300

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION