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A review by brenna__ing
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
5.0
I’ve read a lot of books this year that have an embedded narrative: My Antonia, A Long Way from Chicago, and The Great Gatsby. These stories employ another character within the story to recount the story, strengthening the themes of nostalgia and romanticism.
But Lispector inverts the trope. Through the critical eyes of Rodrigo's narrative of Macabea, what could have been a story about the tragedy of poverty and the dignity of the human spirit, became pathetic and empty.
This is significant when you put this up against the most famous quote from this book, which is, “No one can enter another’s heart.” I think this book does a good job at exploring the bleaker elements of that concept. An embedded narrator can just as easily bestow an other-worldly magic to another character, putting them on a pedestal. But this book does the opposite, which is jarring and made me think a lot more.
But Lispector inverts the trope. Through the critical eyes of Rodrigo's narrative of Macabea, what could have been a story about the tragedy of poverty and the dignity of the human spirit, became pathetic and empty.
This is significant when you put this up against the most famous quote from this book, which is, “No one can enter another’s heart.” I think this book does a good job at exploring the bleaker elements of that concept. An embedded narrator can just as easily bestow an other-worldly magic to another character, putting them on a pedestal. But this book does the opposite, which is jarring and made me think a lot more.