Books, Arts & Manners: Laying Out the Evidence

The Buenos Aires Affair By Manuel Puig

Dutton, 219 pp., $8.95 In a book season that has not been exactly memorable for fiction, we must be especially grateful for the interesting and challenging novels that continue to come to us from Latin America. Several months ago, A Brief Life, one of the major works of the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti, appeared in English translation (after an inexplicable delay of some 25 years). More recently, the excellent Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier broke a long silence with the publication of Reasons of State. The appearance of Manuel Puig’s new novel, The Buenos Aires Affair, is especial cause for celebration, not only because the book makes for fascinating reading, but also because it demonstrates that its already highly accomplished author continues to take chances and to grow as an artist.

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The Buenos Aires Affair By Manuel Puig

Dutton, 219 pp., $8.95 In a book season that has not been exactly memorable for fiction, we must be especially grateful for the interesting and challenging novels that continue to come to us from Latin America. Several months ago, A Brief Life, one of the major works of the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti, appeared in English translation (after an inexplicable delay of some 25 years). More recently, the excellent Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier broke a long silence with the publication of Reasons of State. The appearance of Manuel Puig’s new novel, The Buenos Aires Affair, is especial cause for celebration, not only because the book makes for fascinating reading, but also because it demonstrates that its already highly accomplished author continues to take chances and to grow as an artist.