Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
Wow, what a unique voice Clarice has, her character in this book, Macabéa is incredibly unique and penultimately herself without ever changing even right up to the point of her death. She is odd and a bit out of it but undoubtedly free inwardly which is hard to find these days! Definitely give this a read for a thought provoking read. Stays with you long after you’ve finished it.
challenging
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Clarice Lispector shows her range by contemplating her usual existential questions, but from the point of view of the male gaze.
As much as I knew about this story, it still managed to surprise me. I was aware of (and frankly attracted to) Lispector's signature one-off statements, often listed off in quick bursts, that provide profound insights into the nature of human-ness. However, what I had not expected and was delighted to find was the meta-narration that is infused through the male narrator's voice. In this, Lispector commentates on both writing as an act of creation/destruction and her own inability to recount the story while the story itself occurs. This meta-narration demonstrated a conflicted relationship with the act of writing (not just the story), and I found it fascinating how it serves as a tragic comedy in parallel to Maca's story. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and its incisive playfulness.
Notable quotes:
Put the two together—I am the one writing what I am writing. God is the world. Truth is always an interior and inexplicable contact. My truest life is unrecognizable, extremely interior and there is not a single word that defines it.
If she was dumb enough to ask herself “who am I?” she would fall flat on her face. Because “who am I?” creates a need. And how can you satisfy that need? Those who wonder are incomplete.
Meanwhile the clouds are white and the sky is all blue. Why so much God. Why not a little for men.
When she woke up she no longer knew who she was. Only later did she think with satisfaction: I’m a typist and a virgin, and I like coca-cola. Only then did she dress herself in herself, she spent the rest of her day obediently playing the role of being.
And even sadness was also something for rich people, for people who could afford it, for people who didn’t have anything better to do. Sadness was a luxury.
Notable quotes:
Put the two together—I am the one writing what I am writing. God is the world. Truth is always an interior and inexplicable contact. My truest life is unrecognizable, extremely interior and there is not a single word that defines it.
If she was dumb enough to ask herself “who am I?” she would fall flat on her face. Because “who am I?” creates a need. And how can you satisfy that need? Those who wonder are incomplete.
Meanwhile the clouds are white and the sky is all blue. Why so much God. Why not a little for men.
When she woke up she no longer knew who she was. Only later did she think with satisfaction: I’m a typist and a virgin, and I like coca-cola. Only then did she dress herself in herself, she spent the rest of her day obediently playing the role of being.
And even sadness was also something for rich people, for people who could afford it, for people who didn’t have anything better to do. Sadness was a luxury.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"Ah, what a boring story, I can hardly stand writing it."
I decided to start with this quote from the book, because never have I seen a quote describe so neatly what I felt during the whole time I've spent trying to go through the torture that was reading this book. I've always heard such good things about our Clarice Lispector that I was baffled when I decided to give a first shot to her with her most famous book, Hour of the Star.
Unfortunately, this book didn't resonate with me at all and it became my first 1★ of the year. I was expecting to see more of a criticism of the poverty in Rio, maybe a criticism of how things work and are dealt with in the city ever since she published this book in 1977... where the difference from today is zero, it got even worse - the "marvelous city" is currently abandoned by the government. I was expecting to see how such a poor girl could live and accept such a miserable life. But none of that happened, what happened was I got 96 pages of stalling where nothing went anywhere. The more I read, the less it made sense, Clarice goes on and on and doesn't say anything at all.
Some idiot quotes I found and highlighted along the way that either amused me with how weirdly written they were or how they just served to stall the reader in this torture session:
"She was crazy about soldiers? well she was. Whenever she saw one, she thought with a shiver of pleasure: is he going to kill me?"
"She concluded that nobody had ever actually offended her, everything that happened was because that's how things are and there was no struggle possible, struggle for what?"
"Prohibited things fascinate me. I want to be a pig and a hen and then kill them and drink their blood."
"For what? Answer: that's the way it is because that's the way it is. Was that the way it always was? It always will be. And if it wasn't? But I'm telling you it is. So then."
"Because pre-death resembles intense sensual throes?"
After a taste of the writing, I can now comment on how this was a woman writing about another woman.. but putting a random man to tell the story. I just don't see the point. He saw her maybe once and lord knows how he knew what she did in her free time, what she said when she was a kid, how she behaved and acted as an adult with her friends, in her work, by herself... so weird!
And to make it worse, when things finally look like they're going to progress.... they don't.
Again, came to understand why this is a classic and totally regretted myself. Will never read her again and this is the year where I MUST learn how to DNF bad books because I don't deserve to keep torturing myself when I could be reading something I really enjoy.
I decided to start with this quote from the book, because never have I seen a quote describe so neatly what I felt during the whole time I've spent trying to go through the torture that was reading this book. I've always heard such good things about our Clarice Lispector that I was baffled when I decided to give a first shot to her with her most famous book, Hour of the Star.
Unfortunately, this book didn't resonate with me at all and it became my first 1★ of the year. I was expecting to see more of a criticism of the poverty in Rio, maybe a criticism of how things work and are dealt with in the city ever since she published this book in 1977... where the difference from today is zero, it got even worse - the "marvelous city" is currently abandoned by the government. I was expecting to see how such a poor girl could live and accept such a miserable life
Spoiler
and boyfriend, which turned out to be a super toxic relationship.Some idiot quotes I found and highlighted along the way that either amused me with how weirdly written they were or how they just served to stall the reader in this torture session:
"She was crazy about soldiers? well she was. Whenever she saw one, she thought with a shiver of pleasure: is he going to kill me?"
"She concluded that nobody had ever actually offended her, everything that happened was because that's how things are and there was no struggle possible, struggle for what?"
"Prohibited things fascinate me. I want to be a pig and a hen and then kill them and drink their blood."
"For what? Answer: that's the way it is because that's the way it is. Was that the way it always was? It always will be. And if it wasn't? But I'm telling you it is. So then."
"Because pre-death resembles intense sensual throes?"
After a taste of the writing, I can now comment on how this was a woman writing about another woman.. but putting a random man to tell the story. I just don't see the point. He saw her maybe once and lord knows how he knew what she did in her free time, what she said when she was a kid, how she behaved and acted as an adult with her friends, in her work, by herself... so weird!
And to make it worse, when things finally look like they're going to progress.... they don't.
Spoiler
We get 5, I said FIVE, pages of "she won't die, I - the narrator - won't let that happen".... and then, after stalling the reader AGAIN, what happens? She dies. Sucks! I'm not saying I need a happy ending or an unrealistic (was it unrealistic?) way to keep her alive and make her thrive or whatever, or even overcome a bit of the challenges she had... but all I got was another poor person being cut from life, young and full of hopes to what was supposedly coming next. Yuck.Again, came to understand why this is a classic and totally regretted myself. Will never read her again and this is the year where I MUST learn how to DNF bad books because I don't deserve to keep torturing myself when I could be reading something I really enjoy.
challenging
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated