Pubis Angelical (An Aventura Original) by Manuel Puig

Argentinian Puig will now command attention from readers not previously familiar with his fiction. In Pubis Angelical he interweaves three stories, the first about a beautiful Viennese actress held captive in a mysterious marriage to a World War II munitions maker. The second and most interesting story, since it encompasses a history of Peronism, concerns an Argentinian refugee, dying in a Mexico City hospital, and her conversations with an old friend and an old lover. The third narrative is a futuristic spy thriller about a secret agent called W218. The implication is that one of the three women is real, the others fantasies or projections. Feminist and political themes are clear; but, except for the moving story of the dying woman, the novel is more confusing than compelling. PW found this to be "a novel of feminine reverie and feminist polemic ... revealing very little."--Janet Wiehe, Library Journal & Publishers Weekly.