![]() ![]() All of this works, and the theme emerges just as it should, clearly but quietly. And in time, Valentin responds to Molina's kindness and lack of demands the relationship grows organically, through benevolence and desperation, with a top crust of sentimentality that soon gives way to reveal Puig's real intent: the interlocking of Valentin's position as a victim of political repression with Molina's sexual persecution. Molina also entertains Valentin by telling about old films he's seen: voodoo cheapies, Nazi propaganda romances, trashy Mexican melodramas-a continuity that battles jail time, a soothing, ongoing ribbon of images that gives the book a satisfying meta-narrative quality. But quite the opposite turns out to be the case: Molina in reality acts as Valentin's mother/protector, nursing him over terrible diarrhea caused by purposely-tainted food and feeding him instead from food packages gulled from the warden. Why? Because the warden assumes that Valentin will negligently spill information about his fellow revolutionaries to Molina, that Molina will then pass along this info and Molina fosters the warden's assumption. ![]() Two men-Valentin, a young Marxist held on political charges, and Molina, a 37-year-old window-dresser convicted of pederasty-share a Buenos Aires prison cell. ![]()
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