Tropical Night Falling (Norton Paperback Fiction) [Paperback]

Manuel Puig (Author), Suzanne Jill Levine (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This last novel from the late Puig ( Kiss of the Spider Woman ) uses dialogue, letters and police transcripts to tell the poignant story of two elderly sisters living in Brazil.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A pair of elderly sisters living in tropical Brazilian exile from "stinking old Argentina," where winters can be rough, embody Puig's conviction that life moves on waves of desire and regret. It's not that the sisters reminisce so much as gossip, dissecting the appetencies of their neighbors. There is, for example, Silvia the psychologist who between patients goes chasing a widower with grown children, and kindly married Ronaldo who seduces a mere child. As in all of Puig's fiction, nothing much happens--the one sister who survives at the end of the novel steals a blanket from Aerolineas Argentinas and gets away with it, and everyone seems to complain about the cost of long-distance phone calls--but personalities are laid bare in their eagerness to be victimized. Puig's final novel--he died in July 1990--is recommended for general readers.
-Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cumberland, Md.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 189 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc (January 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393309088
• ISBN-13: 978-0393309089
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,424,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting psychological study, December 15, 2000

By 

Chad R. Heltzel (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tropical Night Falling (Norton Paperback Fiction) (Paperback)

Puig's _Tropical Night Falling_ offers an interesting psychological study of two elderly women living in Rio de Janeiro. What is most perceptive about the novel is the movement the characters demonstrate from profound naivete to a sad, but necessary cynicism of the world around them. As the characters meet and become involved with neighbors and other people near their apartment complex, they begin to understand the complex, bizarre, and often self-destructive relationships that human beings tend to have. Puig makes astute psychological observations and scores points by creating main characters who are in their eighties, certainly an under-represented group in contemporary fiction. The most difficult aspect of reading the novel is that it is presented solely through dialogue, letters, and newspaper articles. At some point, one begins to wonder if the novel would not have worked better as drama. However, _Tropical Night Falling_ is still a good read for anyone who has an interest in contemporary fiction with an emphasis on the psychological.