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lanchika 's review for:
An Apprenticeship, or the Book of Pleasures
by Clarice Lispector
This was one of those books where the prose is just so beautiful I would forgive it anything. I started underlining my favourite parts and I feel like I've underlined half the book at that point. It's true that nothing much happens, Lori's journey is very abstract and internal, but the way it is described has intense love for the human psyche. I've always loved existential themes and Lispector handles those with grace. Lori's intense anxiety and overwhelm at existing in the world and the way she slowly finds peace with it is special to me.
I'll just jot down some of my favourite parts:
"It seemed to her that Ulisses, if she plucked up the courage to tell him what she was feeling, and she never would, if she told him he'd reply more or less like this and very calmly: the condition can't be cured but the fear of the condition is curable."
"But there's something that isn't a good intention. It's a gentleness towards life that also demands the greatest courage to accept it."
"-Lori, said Ulisses, and suddenly he seemed serious though he was speaking calmly, Lori: one of the things I've learned is that we ought to live despite. Despite, we should eat. Despite, we should love. Despite, we should die. It's even often this despite that spurs us on."
I'll just jot down some of my favourite parts:
"It seemed to her that Ulisses, if she plucked up the courage to tell him what she was feeling, and she never would, if she told him he'd reply more or less like this and very calmly: the condition can't be cured but the fear of the condition is curable."
"But there's something that isn't a good intention. It's a gentleness towards life that also demands the greatest courage to accept it."
"-Lori, said Ulisses, and suddenly he seemed serious though he was speaking calmly, Lori: one of the things I've learned is that we ought to live despite. Despite, we should eat. Despite, we should love. Despite, we should die. It's even often this despite that spurs us on."