A review by versmonesprit
Água Viva by Clarice Lispector

challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I have no words. Clarice Lispector used them all, and used them so exquisitely, there are no more words to use, because there is nothing else left to say that she didn’t say. She concludes Água Viva with “What I’m writing to you goes on and I am bewitched.” It goes on; it’s me who is bewitched. Because Água Viva is not a book. It’s a spell. It’s a transcendental experience. It is the utterly relatable invocation of a woman’s uncaged, unrestrained, untamed inner life, like a lush and feral jungle. Everything Clarice Lispector set out to do in Água Viva, she did. If she wrote this in the Middle Ages, she would be canonised, for this book is philosophically divine, poetically holy. It is the most striking meditation on existence, on time, on word. A must read.