Molina falls ill after dinner and continues the story to distract himself from the pain. Though Valentin claims to only be interested in the story as an example of propaganda, he is clearly interested in discovering what happens to the protagonist. A young French woman whose country has been occupied by the Germans during World War II falls in love with a Nazi lieutenant. Later, Molina tells another story, one that Valentin finds offensive because of its obvious propagandistic elements.

Throughout the story, Valentin interjects with his own, usually cynical, opinions about the characters and their motivations. He tells the story of a woman whose fear that she will morph into a panther come true when she suspects her husband is seeing another woman. To pass the time, Molina offers to tell what he remembers of a film he once saw to Valentin, who agrees to listen. Valentin is studious, while Molina is far more open and talkative the beginning of the novel is riddled with brief moments of conflict between the two, and it is clear that they have opposing views on many subjects. The collection, funded by library endowments, makes up the largest cache of letters by Puig outside of those held by his family, and includes two movie scripts that Puig and Fenelli wrote together but never saw performed.Ĭontact: Scott VanJacob, University Libraries, 57, published by Shannon Chapla at newsinfo.nd.edu on September 19, 2007.Valentin Arregui Paz, called Valentin, and Luis Alberto Molina, called Molina, are cellmates in an Argentine prison. The final correspondence was sent shortly before his untimely death in 1990 at the age of 57. The letters provide a window into Puig’s rise to fame, world travels and fertile creativity. Fenelli’s enthusiastic support of Puig’s initial writing projects encouraged him to give up his dreams of becoming a director and realize his true talent in fiction.

The densely written letters were penned over a period of 30 years to Mario Fenelli, an author whom Puig met in the 1950s when they both attended film school in Rome. One of South America’s most renowned authors of the 20th century, Puig wrote a series of novels that often intertwined film, politics and gender, including “Betrayed by Rita Hayworth” and “Heartbreak Tango.” His works have been translated into many languages and regularly are taught in Latin American literature and literature in translation courses. A collection of 311 letters written by the late Argentinian author Manuel Puig, best known for his novel “El Beso de la Mujer Araa” (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), has been acquired by the University Libraries at Notre Dame.

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