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melissafirman's review against another edition
A complicated, challenging, confusing read. The first two dozen pages are all dialogue with no additional context, making it hard to follow. May try this again another time (my DNF may be due to my current mood/headache) but for now I’m finding it difficult reading.
camicapa's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
Me copa, pero es un lio de leer, did not enjoy. Me leí un poco mas de la mitad, y el cap final.
frankiholmes's review against another edition
No puedo. Trato de ver lo que el autor ha querido plasmar pero este libro básicamente ha sido un montón de monólogos y diálogo aleatorios y sin sentido.
vale79's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
millibear's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
CW: There's some brutal descriptions of children being raped by high-school boys in some later chapters. They're brief, but vivid.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Child abuse
What a strange book! "Betrayed by Rita Hayworth" is, like, all dialogue, in a sense. Chapters can be overlapping conversations flying over the head of a child, one-sided gossip fests with a friend, long and rambling stream of consciousness babbling from a grade-schooler, vitriolic letters from high-schoolers, lonesome diary entries... Not much standard sentence spacing or punctuation in parts, but it drives home that characters are speaking from their hearts and pouring things out. The sense of time and place is strong, even without any third-person-objective descriptions of surroundings. Very cool. "Betrayed by Rita Hayworth" follows the family and friends of a young child named Toto as he grows up in Argentina in the 1930s and 1940s. It's more vibes than plot, but worth reading just to see what Puig does with conversations. I can't speak to the original Spanish text, but Jill Levine's translation into English is really pleasant to read.milliebrierley's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
amparrot's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
karengomezv's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
scarlettletters's review against another edition
3.0
So, if I were to read this again, it might be a four-star. It tells the story of people in a small Argentinian village. Almost every chapter is from the perspective of a different character, spanning in time from 1933 to I think 1949 or so. You learn about people through the eyes and voices of others in the town. However, the reason I think I would get more from a re-read is that there are so many people to keep track of and different families and ages and such. One of the characters in the book comments that he doesn't like Dostoevsky because there are so many people who are called different names at different times, which I hope was intentional irony on Puig's part. Overall, it was an interesting structure and a great peek into an area of the world I know nothing about.