I usually enjoy experimental fiction but I found this novel a real slog.
It interweaves three stories. One is of 'the most beautiful woman in the world'; at the start she is kept prisoner by her ultra-rich husband; later her narrative seems to echo the story of film actress Hedy Lamarr (whose real life was rather more interesting). This narrative later gives way to a narrative set in a future of totalitarianism and climate change following a young sex-worker who closely resembles 'the most beautiful woman in the world'. The stories are interwoven with a frame narrative about an Argentinian women being treated in hospital for a tumour: the other two stories appear to be dreamed by her under the influence of the drugs she is taking. All three stories revolve around the way that women are manipulated by men.
I found the science fiction part of the story rather silly. It is very difficult to create convincing scifi.
The frame narrative was mostly rendered in dialogue, presented as a play script. This suffered from two problems. Firstly, the dialogue veered between realistically meandering about nothing and unrealistically presenting statements from philosophy of politics or ethics. Secondly, because there was no interruption for 'stage directions' (in most novels dialogue includes breaks for action; in plays the actors often provide these) it was rather bald.
I struggled to enjoy this novel. March 2022; 236 pages
Selected quotes:
- "The classes stay separate on their own." (1.4)
- "A wealthy person can buy whatever he wants, a person, the police, even a judge." (1.5)
- "He who gets angry first wins." (2.13)
Puig is famous for having written Kiss of the Spider Woman. He has also written
- Betrayal by Rita Hayworth
- Blood of Requited Love
- The Buenos Aires Affair
- Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages
- Heartbreak Tango
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