A review by joeduncan
Água Viva by Clarice Lispector

5.0

It's wild to me that something like this even exists. Simply stated, Agua Viva is about 100 pages of pure creative fury spoken in the form of a soliloquy. One might be tempted to compare it to Beckett if it weren't for the fact that Lispector's tone is about as opposite from that as you can get. The voice is full of life and color. It's hard to even compare it to anything. Maybe Dylan Thomas? Nathaniel Mackey? It's definitely uncommon, especially in fiction. Maybe because positive, life-affirming books are hard to pull off without sounding contrived. Thankfully, Agua Viva is anything but contrived. I could see someone complain that it doesn't have narrative focus or that it is a little hard to follow, but it's undeniable that what she accomplishes feels organic and real. You get the feeling at times that the book itself is alive and full of blood. And that is something pretty incredible.