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Summary: kiss of the spider woman
Review: a good read if you're interested on how to use dialogue to convey action/emotion
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Summary: Excellent, affecting novel
Review: Excellent, affecting, multi-layered novel that opens out as it moves alon
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Summary: THE definition of masterpiece!
Review: Geez...Do you know what masterpiece means? Let me tell you the *true* definition: it means The Kiss of the Spider Woman!!!This story is moving, sad, tragic, fantastic, exciting, entertaining, incredible, *everything*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can peek into their inner-selves through their thoughts, dialogue, action, philosophy...etc. If you haven't read it, READ IT. It's just superb!
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Summary: Enthralling
Review: I have never been as captivated with a verbal description of films as I was with this novel. The plot seems simple, until you realize it's as complex as the films being described. I loved it. This was also my introduction to the works of Puig, and I am now a fan. This book moves quickly, and never gets dull. That's all I can say because if I say anything else, I'll give it all away.
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Summary: beautiful
Review: I judge a book often by how it sticks with me (if at all). I read this book several months ago and still not a week goes by that I don't think about it -- the construction, the flow, the passion -- it is a truly remarkable work
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Summary: A Kiss Drawn from a Web
Review: I really enjoyed this book about two men Valentin, a political prisoner and Molina a gay, window dresser whom both share a jail cell in an Argentine prison. This book works on several levels first, the theme of friendship and second of love, which sometimes means scarifying everything beyond reason for the sake of another. Third greed, the things we do get ahead in the world. For example, Molina deceiving Valentin, which in the end he does get his freedom (although I strongly questions if he indeed wants it by this point, having fallen in love with Valentin) which eventually costs Molina his life. Fourth, the love of gay men for movies as Molina tells Valentine countless stories of movies he has seen. There are some drawbacks to this novel, first a series of footnotes that explains various theories on homosexuality, that in no way strengthen the story or further explain the character of Molina. In parts of the novel it becomes very confusing in terms of who is speaking to who. Both the film and the musical are strong adaptations from this work and have introduced many fresh audiences to this new but ageless story.
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Summary: A Kiss Drawn from a Web
Review: I really enjoyed this book about two men Valentin, a political prisoner and Molina a gay, window dresser whom both share a jail cell in an Argentine prison. This book works on several levels first, the theme of friendship and second of love, which sometimes means scarifying everything beyond reason for the sake of another. Third greed, the things we do get ahead in the world. For example, Molina deceiving Valentin, which in the end he does get his freedom (although I strongly questions if he indeed wants it by this point, having fallen in love with Valentin) which eventually costs Molina his life. Fourth, the love of gay men for movies as Molina tells Valentine countless stories of movies he has seen. There are some drawbacks to this novel, first a series of footnotes that explains various theories on homosexuality, that in no way strengthen the story or further explain the character of Molina. In parts of the novel it becomes very confusing in terms of who is speaking to who. Both the film and the musical are strong adaptations from this work and have introduced many fresh audiences to this new but ageless story.
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Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: I saw the movie, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN several years ago and fell in love with it, but I'd never read the book until last week. As wonderful as the movie is, for me, the book is even better. I was fascinated by this story from the very first page and that fascination only grew until I reached the book's surprising end. KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN begins as a character study of two very different cell mates in an Argentine prison. Molina is a former window dresser who deals with life's uncertainties by escaping into fantasy via his love for the cinema. Valentin, a political revolutionary, is very much the opposite and appears, at first, to be well-grounded in reality. Gradually, however, the two men find common ground and their relationship deepens into something both lasting and life-changing. By the time I got around to reading this book, I'd forgotten much of the film's plot, especially its ending. I was fascinated with the interplay between Molina and Valentin and absolutely mesmerized by the twist Puig gives their relationship...not once...but twice. This story ends on a surprising (at least for me) note, but one that "fits" perfectly. KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN is the kind of book you can't put down until you reach the end and after you do, the story stays with you. It lingers, ensaring you in its web. The bulk of KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN is written in dialogue. Any description of the prisoners's surroundings (or of Molina and Valentin, themselves) is left to the reader's imagination. I know some readers may not agree with or like this choice, but I thought it was perfect. This is very definitely a character-driven novel (and a claustrophobic one at that) as opposed to a plot-driven one and telling the story through dialogue only deepens and enriches our insight into the psyche of the two men involved. I loved KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. It's not upbeat and it won't make you feel good, but it is luminous and mesmerizing from the first page to the last. Puig's style differs greatly from that of other great Latin American writers, but he's just as important and just as influential. This is one novel I think everyone should read.
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Summary: Revisiting a favourite...
Review: It's been almost four years since my last review of this book (look below), and time has only increased my respect for this masterpiece. Every time I re-read it, I find new meanings and nuances that I've missed before, and I enjoy that wonderful shiver that comes whenever a mental window is opened. The story can be viewed as religious commentary, social commentary, fantasy, romance, even horror. The characters grow from the most blatant of stereotypes, to individuals, and eventually, in a complete role reversal, into each other. The development is gradual and subtle and the dialogue is poetic (a little too much so at times, but that's easily forgiven!). This is far from an easy read, but once you're caught in the web, it's almost impossible to escape. If you can, try to read the novel in the original Spanish. Books always lose a little in translation...
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Summary: NO ONE OPPRESSES THE OTHER IN THIS CELL
Review: Kiss of the Spider Woman was a book I had always wanted to read but never did. Then a friend was studying it in his university, and when he finished it, he loaned the book to me. Unfortunately the continuity of the story was interrupted when I reached the halfway point because he asked for the book back for a number of weeks (he needed it for finals). So I think the book is definitely not one of the sort you can start and then pick back up again in a few months. You need to have some concentration to be engaged in the story. It also helps to have some background and context to place the story in.
Almost the entire story takes place in a jail cell between a revolutionary, Valentin, and a homosexual window dresser, Molina, who has been put there to attempt to learn secrets from his cell mate to undermine the revolution. As the story progresses, though, a very strong bond between the two inmates develops. Molina tells stories about films he has seen in order to pass their time together, and they begin to discuss the films, then philosophy and finally life. They share a very reluctant, slow-growing friendship but eventually grow quite close, intimately close. Their friendship is unlikely but is developed with great consideration by Puig, making it believable and plausible throughout each stage. The two men learn to care about one another and show immense compassion for one another.
The movie descriptions are what bind the two together, bring out their common elements. Valentin grows sad at the end of each movie, having grown attached to the characters, much as the reader does with this book. They debate, "It can be a vice, always trying to escape from reality like that, it's like taking drugs or something. Because, listen to me, reality, I mean your reality, isn't restricted by this cell we live in." Always the idea comes again-their dreams, hopes and feelings live on outside the cell and within the cell they are still free because they cannot be oppressed there.
The story develops further through the use of simple conversations between the two men. You learn that Molina sees himself as a man and believes in traditional values: two people falling in love and marrying for a lifetime. Valentin, who is young and considers himself revolutionary, believes marriage and monogamy are wrong, bourgeois deception. Valentin exclaims, "There's no way I can live for the moment because my life is dedicated to political struggle, or, you know, political action, let's call it. Follow me? I can put up with everything in here, which is quite a lot... but it's nothing if you think about torture..."
At some point both men grow sick from the food but refuse to go to the infirmary. Although some of these moments during the mens' illnesses are rather disgusting, they are plot devices to illustrate the growing compassion and intimacy between the two men. While one is quite embarrassed at having gone to the bathroom in his trousers, the other reassures him that it is fine, he will help him clean himself. While Valentin is ill he exposes his "bourgeois inside" revealing that he is still truly in love with Marta, his one true love who left the revolution to love him. He does not really love the woman for whom he left Marta. He went with the second woman because she was the leader of their revolutionary movement.
Prisoners are allowed to have provisions brought to them by family once a week, but Molina's mother is sick and cannot come. Valentin will not tell his mother she can come because he does not want her to feel obligated.
During Valentin's illness we discover that Molina is working with the prison to get Valentin to divulge revolutionary secrets to him. It appears that Molina originally went along with that plan in order to win freedom for himself, but eventually comes to care so much for Valentin that he does not really pursue information as ardently as he could. Molina gets the prison to provide provisions like what his mother would bring in order to fool Valentin into believing his mother is better. He also lets Valentin know that he may soon be getting out of prison. During this period of Molina nursing Valentin back to health, Valentin comes to trust Molina quite deeply, and eventually the two of them physically consummate their relationship, which becomes an ongoing occurrence. ("They no longer see themselves as men or women or themselves but as people who are 'out of danger'").
Finally the day of Molina's release approaches, and he has agreed to do some things on the outside for Valentin. By this time it seems clear that he does not intend to give information to the prison officials. However, of course, the prison keeps Molina under surveillance once he has been released. The last film Molina tells Valentin about parallels their own situation in a sense. The film has a prostitute who is only a prostitute in order to feed the man she loves. This is remarkably similar to Molina's "selling his soul" to give the prison information... but he only does it to keep Valentin alive and healthy.
Molina eventually asks Valentin for a kiss-the one thing they have not shared. Molina is "a spider woman that traps men in her web". Molina tells Valentin, "Valentin, you and my mom are the two people that I've loved most in the world."
And they never see one another again. Naturally a story like this has no happy ending to offer. But the book is so well written and so engaging that you will not mind wiping a few tears from your eyes.
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