Pubis Angelical Summary
Manuel Puig

Pubis Angelical Summary

In Pubis Angelical, Puig recreates one of his favorite themes, that of the interplay between reality and fiction, between fact and illusion, and the propensity of individuals to take refuge in a world created exclusively by the imagination. Ana, the main character, is also the master fictionalizer. She is first introduced in a hospital room, sick and in pain, suffering the postoperative effects of a seemingly unsuccessful surgery to remove a tumor.

She is in pain and in need of frequent sedation throughout the novel. Her counterpart, the Viennese beauty, is also introduced as helpless and devoid of autonomy, sedated, and a prisoner not of her own body or of the hospital but of her powerful husband.

As Ana slowly reveals the details of her life through several interlocutors, we learn of the mysterious Viennese actress through descriptions by a third-person narrator. All details concerning her...

(read more from the Short Guide)