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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
Maybe I just don’t get it? I’d love for someone to explain why this is so highly rated by everyone. Reading through the reviews feels like I’m being gaslit. I will say the writing was beautiful and unique and the narrative was fun. However I maybe be underwhelmed by the story as a whole because the narrator gimmick largely reminded me of another Brazilian novel I just finish (The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas). Though there were clearly differences between how Assis and Lispector used there narrators I wonder if there he influenced her.
don’t really know what happened but i liked it a lot. magical
“The worst part is that I have to forgive them. We must reach such a nothing that we indifferently love or don't love the criminal who kills us.”
This is a book that I so desperately want to like. Clarice Lispector is evidently a brilliant and multifaceted writer, yet I must admit she stands contrary to what I usually read. Before casting a final judgement, I feel It necessary to acquaint myself to and explore her other literary works more extensively.
Hour of the Star, despite my ambivalence, possesses such an enigmatic and complex style. Lispector isn’t afraid to manipulate words and syntax, creating a narrative that is layered and compelling in its ambiguity. Definitely a must-read for anybody who — like myself — enjoys deconstructing unreliable narrative lenses, distinguishing the “real” from the fabricated.
The novella entails the life of Macabéa, a poor northeastern girl characterised by an excessive sense of insignificance. Narrating her story, Rodrigo S.M grapples with cognitive dissonances: perilously yearning to direct her fate while paradoxically defining the necessities of death and despair. It is through these conflicts that Lispector explores some of her most philosophically charged notions: the mystery of individuality, the ever-presence of death, and the interminable complexities of storytelling and perception.
As I mentioned, Lispector is vastly different from my usual preferences — to judge her based purely on inexperience, I feel, would be a great discredit to her talents. Definitely an author I will be allocating more time to.
“….Just as nobody one day would teach her how to die: yet shed surely die one day as if shed learned the starring role by heart. For at the hour of death a person becomes a shining movie star, it's everyone's moment of glory….”
It's things like "am I a monster or is this what it means to be a person?" and "but I want the worst thing of all: life." and also "On Sundays she got up early in order to have more time to do nothing." and "Only then did she dress herself in herself, she spent the rest of her day obediently playing the role of being." It's so fucking good.
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"En esta hora exacta Macabea sintió unas profundas náuseas en el estómago y casi vomitó, quería vomitar lo que no es cuerpo, vomitar algo luminoso. Estrella de mil puntas."
Clarice é estupenda. Criou um narrador que usa e abusa da metalinguagem e construiu personagens recheadas de ausências, sofrimentos e esperanças. Uma narrativa sofrida, mas completa de atualidade.
mysterious
medium-paced
It is just not my cup of tea, the writing style and overal story. I like fantasy more.