The Buenos Aires Affair

Increíblemente y a pesar de la poca fe que tenía en el libro, me gustó mucho. Encontré una genialidad distinta a la deEl beso de la mujer araña(prefiero esa novela antes que esta), así queThe Buenos Aires Affairno me decepcionó del todo.A medida que lo iba leyendo, llegué a creer que este libro se trataba básicamente de las represiones y de las experiencias sexuales de los personajes (cosa que me molesta, porque si quisiera leer sobre eso me compraría un libro de género erótico y adi [...]

This detective story starts with the mother of the lead female character discovering that her daughter is missing. After the discovery, the bulk of the first half of the novel are fairly compelling character studies of the victim and the kidnapper. Puig gives detailed background information on each character, formatted like a police report. It’s focused and doesn’t mention clichéd childhood moments for their supposed sentimental value, as is sometimes the tendency when writers summarize big [...]

I was interested in reading the novels of Mauel Puig after learning Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai used some of them for inspiration for his films. The first one I read was Heartbreak Tango, which was inspiration for Wong's Days of Being Wild, and was experimental in form. This novel, The Buenos Aires Affair, is the story of an unhealthy love affair between an artist, Gladys D'Onofrio and an art critic Leo Druscovich in Argentina. This destructive relationship was part of the inspiration for Wo [...]

Apenas lo compré en una segunda en Puebla y tengo ciertas expectativas que espero cumpla por lo pronto la edición es tan vintage que seguro lucirá bien en cualquier librero. ¿Quién dijo que la literatura no entra por la vista?Se toma su tiempo Puig con sus personajes, muy engaging ellos, pero algo me hizo perder un poco el interés al fina.

Me encanta la narrativa de Manuel Puig. Recomiendo mucho esta obra sobre todo por las diferentes formas en como se puede narrar una novela policíaca.

First read this almost a decade ago, but in the meantime forgot just how awesome it really is. It's like a detective novel told through the forms of Joyce's Ulysses. Despite the fairly disturbing story at the center of this, it's a pretty fun, pretty interesting book. I want to write more, but I don't have the book here with me . . . One of Puig's best. (Along with Heartbreak Tango, which I'll be rereading in the very near future.)

A decir verdad es un libro con una impronta muy pesada, fuerte, visceral, emocionante. Disfrutable en su desarrollo pero sostengo que mantiene fallas en la historia.De todos modos ¿quién soy yo para criticar a Puig?

For many years my determination was to read a book in the language that it was written if I possibly couldd I've got a bit lazy about that. French I took in school to quite a high level -- but never won that little pot of money to visit France so never did. I lost heart a bit when richer kids went off for summer holidays and came back hugely improved while I just sat there. So I read a bit -- Mouloud Feraoun and Assia Djebar inspired me to get some Algerian books in French, but I haven't yet bro [...]

Read this in Spanish y'all.I love Puig and this tome has the changes in style and shifts in points of view that one would expect. The Ex Deus Machina to finish off the murder - Leopoldo - was unexpected and not too odd given the tone of this story. On an emotional level, just like with Ensayo de un Crimen, when the reader knows a lot and gets to have feelings for the killer, more so than the victim, it creates an odd tension that I'm not sure I like. --------------------------------------Soy fan [...]

I can't come up with a good reason for this book to exist. It's boring. But it's ART! Yeah, but it's boring.

(read in Portuguese)Pros: the author is an extremely talented writer, and has a very impressing writing technique. Almost every chapter has a distinctive style. His writing is lively, full of passion and (sometimes) humor. Cons: since every chapter has a different structure, the formal structure of the whole work is not very well balanced (at least in my humble point of view). The stylistic tour de force adopted by Puig seems pointless to me, as if the author were trying to show off. Too many re [...]

The Buenos Aires Affair functions as a psychological/social collage of the characters leading up to, during, and after an artist going missing. The novel is a piece of detective work, gathering profiles and histories, as well as conversations and dreams that provide motivating factors. Puig is at times graphic in his descriptions of sexuality and violence, but never to a gratuitous degree: the violence amd sexuality are all a necessary part of the character sketch. This is a precursor to Bolano, [...]

I enjoyed this book intermittently, mainly in its exploitation of a diversity of genres, including stream of consciousness, operatic dialogue, psychoanalytic observation points. There were times when I lost the thread altogether but kept on reading for the sheer pleasure of the word. The characters however and their sexual internal dialogues were not that special. It is clear there is a wealth of references to possibly the author's own experience on the couch - not surprising seeing Argentina's [...]

Lo empecé después de haber leído El beso de la mujer araña y Boquitas pintadas. Como sucede también en esas novelas, en The Buenos Aires affair Puig también juega con los géneros. La trama se construye a partir de conversaciones telefónicas, recortes de diario, observaciones, percepciones de los personajes, etc. Esa falta de certeza en la narración es lo que hace que Puig sea uno de mis autores preferidos; sin embargo, esta novela no cumplió con mis expectativas y disfruté mucho más [...]

No me gustó. El experimentalismo formal, que consiste en mezclar varias escrituras, no tiene necesidad. Por ejemplo, la relación del cadáver de Leo no tiene que tomar la forma de informe, tal como lo hace el texto; si la contara directamente el narrador mismo no habría ningún problema. A pesar de su apariencia vanguardista, The Buenos Aires Affair es una obra conservadora, ni más ni menos. Una melodrama (en el sentido peyorativo de la palabra) superficial (en el sentido peyorativo de la pa [...]

Puig es de mis favoritos escritores, este es el cuarto libro de él y no me desilusiono!!! Es sobre un asesinato donde como es costumbre en Puig, utiliza muchos diferentes estilos de contar, dividió en dos partes el libro, en donde la primera parte es mejor. Cuenta las frustraciones sexuales de los protagonistas ( la da Gladys le salió mejor) y para mi gusto en el final falló. Libro diferente, como todos los de Puig, para ser novela de asesinato.

Este es el primer libro de Puig que leo, elegido casi al azar, si es que el azar existe en la relación entre el lector y el libro. Narrador de muchos recursos, aprecié el juego de desplazamientos que intenta y a tiempos logra en el género detectivesco, pero las páginas mejor logradas son las 'convencionales', es decir, donde se dedica a narrar una historia.

Una reivindicación de lo marginal en la literatura, que ahora podría parecer un lugar común de mucha literatura contemporánea, pero para su época implica todo un cambio de pensamiento. Una parte de la nueva novela latinoamericana que no se abre a ser leída ante el resto del mundo sino una que se abre a recibir objetos culturales del mundo, el cine, la publicidad, la música

Manuel Puig is the master of cannibalizing genre fiction with a psychoanalytic twist. This Freudian detective story manages to critique Freud and turn the generic tropes of the detective story on their head. Not my favorite Puig but even a meh Puig is better than almost anything else.

I was expecting so much more from a banned book. I got tired trying to follow his confused plot and shifts in POV.

Fora o final batidinho, achei interessante.

Me encantó! Al parecer no es el libro más valorado de Puig, así que ahora tengo más ganas de leer el resto de sus obras :)

The underlying concept was interesting but disturbing. However, the style of narrative was too disjointed for my liking.

Impressionistic tale of unhealthy obsessions.

A sexually charged thriller that will leave you wondering the difference between fantasy and reality.

The Buenos Aires affair by Manuel Puig (1973)

I wrote the introduction to this edition. Great book!

i read this pre-dalkey, but a fantastic detective novel for the dalkey archive set. xxx in places. puig is of "kiss of the spider woman" fame.

What can I say? Puig is one of the finest Argentine writers. This book is a must read for those who love to take risks. Real literature, not suitable for squeamish readers.

Puig is a master of the slightly surreal mystery genre. I love his depictions of Buenos Aires and the background colors of his stories.