Soaps and Pop Culture Puig
(Lebanon Edition)
Parramatta: A Dictionary of Place and Memory - S
In the 90s, I used to watch Antonella in Lebanon with my family.
I found this Argentinian soap on YouTube recently, which was dubbed into Arabic when I first watched it.
It delighted me to discover the novels of Manuel Puig, especially Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Two men in a jail cell talk about films, one earnest and fond of them, the other a political prisoner who is (understandably) very cynical.
Kiss of the Spider Woman is a work of technical mastery.
A special brilliance is required to pull off a novel that is almost entirely a mix of monologue or dialogue.
In the biography by one of Puig’s translators, Suzanne Jill Levine captures Puig’s biting wit.
I get the sense Puig is considered B-list in Latin American literature. There may be many reasons for this.
He was on the fringes, not part of the literary establishment. Most of his references were to films rather than to books. Levine calls him a pop novelist, and there is judgement towards those whose biggest influences are what’s culturally popular.