Betrayed by Rita Hayworth (Latin American Literature)

Finally back in print, Manuel Puig's celebrated first novel is a startling anatomy of a small town in thrall to its own petty lusts, betrayals, scandals, thefts, and gossip—but most of all, to the movies. Centering around a boy named Toto, privy to the town's secrets and always eager to fill in the ugly or upsetting moments of his childhood with Hollywood-inspired fantasy, Betrayed by Rita Hayworth is a symphony of disappointed, comic, bitter, and bawdy voices, all hemmed in by life's refusal to behave like the silver screen, and is perhaps the funniest and most honest coming-of-age story of its time. Library Journal A brilliant Argentine novelist, indebted to Joyce and Faulkner, but endowed with formidably original comic talents . . . Only a writer with an extraordinary imagination should attempt the stream-of-consciousness novel. It is done here nearly as well as it has ever been done. For everybody. "Manuel Puig's celebrated first novel is a startling anatomy of a small town in thrall to its own petty lusts, betrayals, scandals, thefts, and gossip--but most of all, to the movies. Centering around a boy named Toto, privy to the town's secrets and always eager to fill in the ugly or upsetting moments of his childhood with Hollywood-inspired fantasy, Betrayed by Rita Hayworth is a symphony of disappointed, comic, bitter, and bawdy voices, all hemmed in by life's refusal to behave like the silver screen, and is perhaps the funniest and most honest coming-of-age story of its time."--Publisher description With the announcement of Juan Carlos Etchepare's death, an unusual tale of love unfolds.