Kiss of the Spider Woman: The Queer Classic Everyone Should Read
As seen:
By Manuel Puig
avg rating
1 review
Valentin and Molina seemingly share little other than a cell in this queer classic ahead of its time.
‘Dazzling… a triumph’ Observer
Sometimes they talk all night long. In the still darkness of their Buenos Aires prison cell, Molina re-weaves the glittering and fragile stories of the film he loves, and the cynical Valentin listens. Valentin believes in the just cause that makes all suffering bearable; Molina believes in the magic of love that makes all else endurable.
Though they seemingly share little other than a cell, the two form a bond so intimate – and a relationship so profoundly affecting – that only the other could understand.
‘A visionary work that breathed life into certain dimensions of human possibility long before society at large was prepared to imagine them.’ Carolina de Robertis, Los Angeles Review of Books
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It is safe to say that not many bookclub members enjoyed this book. It was something which stretched a lot of us beyond our book reading ability. This is not to say that it's a bad book, it's just very different to our usual reads. We found it to be too literary for our bookclub. It may also be more enjoyable had the reader seen the film, or the stage show.
We all found it very tricky to keep up with who was speaking as each line spoken just started with not indication of speaker. We also got the two prisoners confused a great deal of the time which didn't help with the flow of the book. We also found the footnotes to be very distracting and didn't add much to the actual story. Although they did offer an interesting insight into how people thought about certain things in the time period this book is from.
Overall we gave this book 2 out of 10, although because many people hadn't finished it not everyone voted.
