The author of this interesting
novel is Manuel Puig, already dead. He was born in Argentina and left innovating ways of writing stories that calls the attention by the originality of the resources he uses. Puig was very fond of watching films, he loved them and the pop culture too, that is reflected in the way of presenting the subjects of the novels he wrote. In this novel there is no a narrator and it is deprived of the classical structure of a novel ; it deals with some basic subjects , such as friendship ,
homosexuality and ,
political compromise . The author writes a moving
story among them. In a rapid
dialogue between two men ,serving a sentence, one ,a political dissident and the other for a sexual attack on a boy, they are both in the same
prison cell which is very convenient for the prison warden. They are Luis Alberto Molina , homosexual and Valentin Arregui , imprisoned for political activities. As one reads the story seems to be watching a movie for the quick dialogue between them. Molina helps his inmate to bear the sufferings of the tortures and tells him the plots of the movies he has watched in the cinemas of his town. The fascination that Molina feels for the films is a mental escape from his condition that is rejected by the social surroundings though the friendship is full of sensibility and personal help. The dialogue reflects the colloquial way of talking of the people in Argentina. Puig separates the themes with the use of blank lines ,dots and leaders ,the same as in a movie when silences are produced in the dialogues of the cinematographic scenes. Molina describes the details of his narrations regarding decorations and feelings of the protagonists. He also longs for his mother what is useful for the prison warden to take out vital information about the revolutionary movements and the identity of Arregui´ friends .In the development of the story the author presents us theories about the physical origin of homosexuality of an English investigator D.J. West which are refused as far as the position of Anna , Freud´ daughter ,father of the Psychoanalysis. In her work “ Psychoanalysis” referring to children , she analyses the sexual repressions which are going to develop in conflicts of impotence, frigidity , homosexuality or lesbianism. On the other hand, Valentine´ motives that guides his life are social compromise, Marxism and communism. The name of the novel “The kiss of the spider woman” refers to Molina who takes Valentin in his net.
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