Manuel Puig and the Spiderwoman: His Life and Fictions

by Suzanne Jill Levine

Book Overview

This is the first biography, now available in paperback, of Manuel Puig (1932-1990), Argentinian author of Kiss of the Spider Woman and pioneer of high camp. Suzanne Jill Levine, his principal English... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374281904
• ISBN13: 9780374281908
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Illuminating Biography of Manuel Puig by his 'Spider Woman'

Suzanne Jill Levine was an intimate colleague, friend, devotee, and scholar of the late and much lamented brilliant Argentinean author Manuel Puig. So tied to his childhood history and obsessions with the movies of the 30s and 40s and so in tune with his idiosyncratic, peripatetic life style, Levine seems the perfect embodiment of Puig's hallowed 'spider woman', making her the perfect foil for committing his biography to public books. Some would say the close proximity between Levine and Puig might not result in an accurately critical analysis of the artist's life and work, but Levine avoids that pious hagiography by showing us a three dimensional character more than other writers have been able to produce. Puig was born in a poor sector of Argentina, the child of a tattered family, his only escape from the tragedy of everyday life was in his beloved movies - the art form that influenced his life and his creative output more than any other stimulus. Though he enjoyed rather early success as a writer after moving to Buenos Aires (and subsequently to Rome, Paris, London, New York, Sweden, etc), he eventually lived in Hollywood splendor in Rio de Janeiro where his most famous works were published and his reputation as Latin America's first Pop novelist was firmly established. Puig lived in a cinematic world finding that the real world never really equaled the promise of the movie world. His sexual proclivities included his penchant for essentially unavailable straight men and though surrounded by devoted admirers, he could not escape the obsession that time was eroding and deteriorating his life in a way only explained by such delusions as that of, say, Oscar Wilde's 'Dorian Gray'. But Levine has the sensitivity and intelligence to include detailed accounts of each of Puig's literary works, giving very valuable insights to his compulsion of writing 'The Kiss of the Spider Woman' first as a novel, then play, then movie, and ultimately as a Broadway musical. Such thorough knowledge and elegant writing style that Levine uses in dissecting the impact of this one work is indicative of the fullness of this fine biography. This is a book rich in color and flavor AND scholarship and for this reader it is the finest biography of the fascinating Manuel Puig yet published. Grady Harp, June 05

A unique way of knowing this marvelous writer

El hecho de que haya sido la propia traductora de sus novelas al idioma ingles quien escribiera la primera biografia del escritor no es un mero dato, porque Jill Levine resulta ser tambien una perfecta traductora de su vida, de su pensamiento y de su sensibilidad, asi como tambien del ambiente y de la epoca en que vivio, y mas que eso, despierta el interes por leer todas las novelas del escritor, tan vigente en nuestra epoca: un visionario.