A review by tictactoney
An Apprenticeship, or the Book of Pleasures by Clarice Lispector

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I enjoyed this book, but there are two things I need to acknowledge: 1. Ulisses is a condescending prick, and 2. this book is, fundamentally, about a man who seeks to change a woman, and a woman who really wants this man to change her, which is straight up not a great premise. 

2024 reread: 
Romanticize your life! Eat the apple, smell your neighbor's jasmine, swim in the sea at dawn. And Ulisses is still an ass.

She wanted the pleasure of the extraordinary which was so simple to find in common things: the thing didn't need to be extraordinary in order for her to feel the extraordinary in it.

Her difficulty was being what she was, which was suddenly turning into an insurmountable difficulty.