Kiss of the Spider Woman
SynopsisPlot
In an Argentine prison, two men share a cell: Molina, a gay window dresser who is self-centered, self-denigrating, yet charming as well; and Valentin, an articulate, fiercely dogmatic revolutionary haunted by memories of a woman he left for the cause. Both are gradually transformed by their guarded but growing friendship and by Molina’s obsession with the fantasy and romance of the movies.
Story
About this book
Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig is set inside an Argentine prison cell during the country's military dictatorship. Two men share the confined space: Molina, a gay window dresser with a flair for charm and a habit of self-deprecation, and Valentin, a political revolutionary whose ideological certainty is shadowed by memories of a woman he left behind. Their long conversations become a way to push back against isolation and the constant threat of torture.
Molina passes the time by retelling the plots of films, spinning out romantic and fantastical stories that offer a world apart from the cell walls. Valentin, skeptical at first, is drawn into these retellings even as he revisits his own past and imagines possible futures. Through their exchanges, each man's assumptions about strength, desire, and loyalty are tested. The novel is constructed largely through dialogue, with footnotes and official reports woven into the text, giving it an unusual documentary texture.
Puig wrote the book in 1976. Its setting in a Buenos Aires prison during a period of political repression grounds the story in a specific historical moment, while the interplay between political conviction and personal longing gives the narrative its central tension.
