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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A well crafted thriller, February 28, 2001
This review is from: The Buenos Aires Affair (Biblioteca de Bolsillo) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)
"This tongue-in-cheek thriller involves the abduction of a woman, an insidious threat of sexual violation, and an impending murder, and gives a powerful portrait of two mutilated lives -- the victim and the criminal who are psychologically dependent on each other: Gladys Hebe D'Onofrio, a 35-year-old sculptor of little achievement, now frightfully alone, tormented by sexual fantasies and perpetually in search of the ideal lover; and Leo Druscovich, an outwardly confident and successful art critic and editor, deeply troubled by a terrible guilt that surfaces in his repeated sexual failures." As usual, Manuel Puig uses many devices in telling the story. Each chapter has a different structure and style. It is interesting to see how the seemingly disjointed stories all come together to make sense in the end. It is an interesting read. That's all I have to say about this book.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A filmic and perverse novel, September 26, 2006
The Buenos Aires Affair is a novel composed as a sort of collage. Sources for the collage: debris that collects on the beach and is scavenged for reuse, pre-50's film and its divas, hardboiled detective fiction and the cartoonish fringe of the international art world. The novel is an experiment of form, and the forms Puig picks out - one-sided dialogue and imaginary interviews to name two - require some serious engagement to pull the story out of the document. BUT, that is part of the mystery being set up by the book itself, the story of which is a kind of murder mystery in reverse, in which we learn of a crime, and then we excavate the people involved and how they came to be captor and captee.
Lots of dirty glamour to be reveled in, and lots of fun to be had with references to the femme fatales Puig adored. This is a wonderful book for film lovers, not only for content, but for seeing how texture and fragments piece together. Puig, who was also trained in screenwriting and briefly directed, hoped at some point to work in film, and this shows that aspect of his intuition at work. For those with some patience, a love for the tawdry and a seedy appetite, Puig will take you spelunking.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic, April 28, 2006
This is a beautifully crafted and constructed novel. I really do not want to say too much about this book except read it. An amazing work from an almost forgotten writer.
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