Customer Reviews

The Buenos Aires Affair (Biblioteca de Bolsillo) (Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

I used to think that movies were the most vivid forms of media available until I read this book. Being a required book for my Spanish literature class in detective novels, I bought it with the naivity to think that college courses would be at least somewhat screened. But I was apalled to find EXTREMELY graphic sexual descriptions that excited the emotions far more profoundly than the most vivid R-rated movie one could find. Never mind the "brilliance" of the story line. I could not agree with the first reviewer more. One with any conscience of God's law at all would not be able to even begin to enjoy the story line because of the dominant theme of sexuality, immorality, violence, and the like that pervades the entire story. If this book is a class requirement for you, I would suggest you talk with the professor to see if he/she can make other arrangements for your reading.

A view into the minds of two extremely preverted people, this is the story of a masocist and a sadist. Did I really want to know their thoughts, fantasies or actions? These were people I wouldn't have a cup of coffee with in a million years. Did I already know that these people look and for the msot part act like normal people? You bet.

So, why, I kept asking myself, did the author write this book? Certainly, they weren't people you wanted hanging around your subconscious for very long, let along having to think of them intimately all the time you were writing. Maybe he was exorcising his own personal demons - I don't know.

Maybe it's my own brand of voyerism that made me finish the novel, but I'll be more careful next time one of his books comes my way.