Betrayed by Rita Hayworth

Manuel Puig’s celebrated first novel is a startling anatomy of a small town in thrall to its own petty lusts, betrayals, scandals, thefts, and gossip—but most of all, to the movies. Centering around a boy named Toto, privy to the town’s secrets and always eager to fill in the ugly or upsetting moments of his childhood with Hollywood—inspired fantasy, Betrayed by Rita Hayworth is a symphony of disappointed, comic, bitter, and bawdy voices, all hemmed in by life’s refusal to behave like the silver screen, and is perhaps the funniest and most honest coming-of-age story of its time.