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chalkletters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Manuel Puig offers no description of what the cell is like. Kiss of the Spider Woman is written entirely in dialogue, with the only visual input coming from Molina explaining aloud how things look in the films he remembers. A reader has to do a lot of filling in the gaps and joining the dots; it's impressive how often this comes intuitively, but it's not perfect. There are times when not having dialogue tags makes it difficult to keep track of who is speaking a given line. (Top tip: write V and M next to the dialogue markers in particularly tricky passages.)
While it's not the easiest novel to read, Kiss of the Spider Woman has a lot going on. It's reminiscent of the poetry of someone like W H Auden; each word and action is chosen with care to fit into one or more of the themes running through the novel. Even the films reflect the same concerns: people being other than what they seem, trust, betrayal. There are also supposedly academic footnotes written by Manuel Puig that interrupt and complicate the flow of the narrative. The reader has to choose for themselves whether they'll read the entire multi-page footnote then go back to the story, or reach each page in full as a mix of story and footnote, or read the story first and ignore the footnotes altogether. If you had time, you could do all three, and each option would throw different light on the themes Manuel Puig is trying to highlight: there's a reason people can and do spend hours discussing this novel.
Honestly, Kiss of the Spider Woman probably wasn't a great novel to reread for this blog; it would have benefitted more from a slower pace where I could also have reread all my marginalia, rather than pushing through as quickly as possible to get to the next thing on the list. Despite that, it was good to refresh myself, and I do appreciate having a written review to refer back to the next time I reread it.
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Dysphoria, Excrement, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Torture
s_l's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Confinement, Transphobia, and Homophobia
Moderate: Excrement, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Infidelity, Alcoholism, Classism, Emotional abuse, War, Murder, Alcohol, Death, Sexism, and Slavery
ravenmaty's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Death and Sexual content
_rocio_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, and Homophobia
Moderate: Death
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Sexual content, and Hate crime
saintsaens's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia
Moderate: Death