Betrayed by Rita Hayworth
Manuel Puig
2009, Dalkey Archive Press
222 pages
FINALLY back in print, Manuel Puig’s celebrated first novel is a startling anatomy of a small town in thrall to its own petty lusts, betrayals, scandals, thefts and gossip – but, most of all, to the movies. Centring around a boy named Toto, privy to the town’s secrets and always eager to fill in the ugly or upsetting moments of his childhood with Hollywood-inspired fantasy, Betrayed by Rita Hayworth is a symphony of disappointed, comic, bitter, bawdy voices, all hemmed in by life’s refusal to behave like the silver screen. Perhaps the funniest and most candid coming-of-age story of its time.
