Manuel Puig's first novel Betrayed by Rita Hayworth is set in a small Argentine town called Coronel Vallejos, which was modeled on the village of General Villegas in which the author grew up. As might be expected, it abounds with local color and, like most of Puig's work, has a strong strain of social realism. In portraying a wide range of the town's varied inhabitants, Puig focuses on the cultural, political and social myths by which they live.

These characters present themselves through a series of interior monologues in which they reveal their values and concerns: the cultural attitudes, religious beliefs, and assorted dreams that have shaped their lives. Primary among these is the influence of the Hollywood vision that has filtered into their unfulfilled lives and shaped their perceptions of reality. The romantic ideal presented by the cinema and other influences from popular culture, such...