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ericfheiman's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I’m about 1/3 the way through and so far not terribly impressed. Not bad, but not great. Hoping the later stories are better. Stay tuned.
——
Upon finally finishing this tome after fits and spurts over 6-7 years, I come away greatly impressed by the distinct voice and (especially in later stories) formalism.
But there’s a distance here that makes Lispector’s stories hard to love. I was a bit lukewarm on The Chandelier but The Hour of the Star knocked me out. The Collected Stories falls somewhere in between.
——
Upon finally finishing this tome after fits and spurts over 6-7 years, I come away greatly impressed by the distinct voice and (especially in later stories) formalism.
But there’s a distance here that makes Lispector’s stories hard to love. I was a bit lukewarm on The Chandelier but The Hour of the Star knocked me out. The Collected Stories falls somewhere in between.
alexandra13's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
renni's review against another edition
5.0
My favorite sections were definitely Family Ties and Foreign Legion, but every bit of it was masterful
catyrunstheworld's review against another edition
5.0
Quatro anos, três casas, dois países. Não acredito que cheguei ao fim. Saboreei-te o mais lentamente que consegui para fazer perdurar o quanto pudesse o prazer que é descobrir-te pela primeira vez.
Aqui ficam os meus contos preferidos:
- Cartas a Hermengardo
- Feliz Aniversário
- O Crime do Professor de Matemática
- O Búfalo
- A Mensagem
- A Tentação
- Evolução de Uma Miopia
- Uma Amizade Sincera
- Legião Estrangeira
- Felicidade Clandestina
- Uma História de Tanto Amor
- As Águas do Mundo
- A Partida do Trem
- É para lá Que Eu Vou
- Silêncio
- Tanta Mansidão
- Tempestade de Almas
Sou tua devota, Clarice.
Aqui ficam os meus contos preferidos:
- Cartas a Hermengardo
- Feliz Aniversário
- O Crime do Professor de Matemática
- O Búfalo
- A Mensagem
- A Tentação
- Evolução de Uma Miopia
- Uma Amizade Sincera
- Legião Estrangeira
- Felicidade Clandestina
- Uma História de Tanto Amor
- As Águas do Mundo
- A Partida do Trem
- É para lá Que Eu Vou
- Silêncio
- Tanta Mansidão
- Tempestade de Almas
Sou tua devota, Clarice.
mtomchek's review against another edition
5.0
"Once in a while, groundless melancholy would darken my face, a dull and incomprehensible nostalgia for times never experienced would invade me."
"What interests me above all is feeling, accumulating desires, filling me up with myself. Achievements open me up, leave me empty and sated."
"...a day without tears is a day in which the heart has hardened, not a day in which the heart is happy."
"You must know how to feel, but also how to stop feeling, because if an experience is sublime it can equally become dangerous. Learn how to cast the spell and then break it. Pay attention, I'm teaching you something valuable: the magic that is opposite of, 'open, Sesame.' The best way for a feeling to lose its perfume and stop intoxicating us is to expose it to the sun."
"Of what matter am I made in which elements and foundations for a thousand other lives mingle but never merge? I go down every path and still none is mine. I have been sculpted into so many statues and haven't frozen into place..."
"When I opened the bedroom windows and looked out onto the cool, calm garden in the first rays of sunlight, I was certain there was nothing to do but live."
"Desires are ghosts that dissolve as soon as you light the lamp of good sense."
"Do not perform it, that is what you must do. Do not listen to it and you shall possess it. Do not love and you shall have love inside you. Do not smoke your cigarette and you shall have lit a cigarette inside you. Do not listen to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and it will never end for you."
"Early in the morning it was always the same thing renewed: waking up. Which was languorous, unfurling, vast."
"The camel's large dusty eyelashes above eyes dedicated to the patience of an internal craft."
"My mystery is that being merely a means, and not an end, has given me the most mischievous of freedoms: I'm no fool and I make the most of things."
"As long as I invent God, He doesn't exist."
"Esperança means both 'hope' and 'cricket.'"
"To meditate, I took myself out of me first and I feel the void. It is in the void that one passes the time."
"Beyond the ear there is a sound, at the far end of sight a view, at the tips of the fingers an object -- that's where I'm going. At the tip of the pencil the line. Where a thought expires is an idea, the final breath of joy another joy, at the point of the sword magic -- that's where I'm going."
"In Brasília I have to think in parentheses."
"Living is dramatic. But there is no escaping it: we are born."
"I am so lost. But that is exactly how we live: lost in time and space."
This expansive collection has been gathered and translated from the beautiful, the majestic, the magical Clarice Lispector. Her stories were written all throughout her life, 85 in total, each so special, strange, beautiful, impactful, simple, introspective, and transcendental. Born in Ukraine, but spent most of her life in Brazil, Lispector presents us with her innermost thoughts through her words of fiction and prose. I cannot express my admiration for this woman and her work. Highlighting Brazil, women of all ages, and even the chicken and the egg. So special and I will keep these works close to heart.
"What interests me above all is feeling, accumulating desires, filling me up with myself. Achievements open me up, leave me empty and sated."
"...a day without tears is a day in which the heart has hardened, not a day in which the heart is happy."
"You must know how to feel, but also how to stop feeling, because if an experience is sublime it can equally become dangerous. Learn how to cast the spell and then break it. Pay attention, I'm teaching you something valuable: the magic that is opposite of, 'open, Sesame.' The best way for a feeling to lose its perfume and stop intoxicating us is to expose it to the sun."
"Of what matter am I made in which elements and foundations for a thousand other lives mingle but never merge? I go down every path and still none is mine. I have been sculpted into so many statues and haven't frozen into place..."
"When I opened the bedroom windows and looked out onto the cool, calm garden in the first rays of sunlight, I was certain there was nothing to do but live."
"Desires are ghosts that dissolve as soon as you light the lamp of good sense."
"Do not perform it, that is what you must do. Do not listen to it and you shall possess it. Do not love and you shall have love inside you. Do not smoke your cigarette and you shall have lit a cigarette inside you. Do not listen to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and it will never end for you."
"Early in the morning it was always the same thing renewed: waking up. Which was languorous, unfurling, vast."
"The camel's large dusty eyelashes above eyes dedicated to the patience of an internal craft."
"My mystery is that being merely a means, and not an end, has given me the most mischievous of freedoms: I'm no fool and I make the most of things."
"As long as I invent God, He doesn't exist."
"Esperança means both 'hope' and 'cricket.'"
"To meditate, I took myself out of me first and I feel the void. It is in the void that one passes the time."
"Beyond the ear there is a sound, at the far end of sight a view, at the tips of the fingers an object -- that's where I'm going. At the tip of the pencil the line. Where a thought expires is an idea, the final breath of joy another joy, at the point of the sword magic -- that's where I'm going."
"In Brasília I have to think in parentheses."
"Living is dramatic. But there is no escaping it: we are born."
"I am so lost. But that is exactly how we live: lost in time and space."
This expansive collection has been gathered and translated from the beautiful, the majestic, the magical Clarice Lispector. Her stories were written all throughout her life, 85 in total, each so special, strange, beautiful, impactful, simple, introspective, and transcendental. Born in Ukraine, but spent most of her life in Brazil, Lispector presents us with her innermost thoughts through her words of fiction and prose. I cannot express my admiration for this woman and her work. Highlighting Brazil, women of all ages, and even the chicken and the egg. So special and I will keep these works close to heart.
colinhdempsey's review against another edition
3.0
Lispector's strength is showing how little one needs to write a good story. many of her stories succeed because there's so much that isn't there. the middle section of stories trample over themselves and become word soup. everything is redeemed at the end with the story about the girl fucking the alien.
paperknotbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It took me like 6 months to complete, but it’s worth every second! Some stories will/have stay with me more than others, but there are a LOT of stories!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Violence, and Death