'Always thinking of the reader'

 

“Writers are not meant for action.” – Manuel Puig

  

Born in Argentina on Dec. 28, 1932 Puig did not really practice what he preached, often taking action and angering those in power with the words he shared.  That activism led to some rousing good literature but also caused him to spend much of his adult life in exile.  

 

Puig is perhaps best known for his novel Kiss of the Spider Woman – which also won acclaim as both a movie and a play, the screenplay and play script also done by him.   While his writing was well received it was never in the “best seller” mode, much to his dismay, since he said he always wished to have one and “Live out life in the Tropics.”  Instead, he mostly made a living translating other writers’ works.

 

“I write novels,” he said shortly before his death in 1990, “because there is something I don’t understand in reality.  I like to put myself in the place of those who will be reading what I write.  Whenever I write, I’m always thinking of the reader.”