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paigeweb's reviews
62 reviews
A Breath of Life: Pulsations by Clarice Lispector
5.0
"I went trembling to encounter myself."
"I am an abyss of myself.'"
"I am a memory of myself."
The book in which Clarice splits the atom and becomes a god. A Breath of Life is a twisted maze of layered literary artifice: Clarice creates a narrator, who creates Angela. Character of a character. Which one is Clarice? Both and neither, simultaneously.
A book about encountering the self, about splitting the self to know it, about the alienation of the self from the self. It's enormously interesting that she wrote it as she herself was dying, and happily appropriate that the last work in her corpus ends mid-thought with an ellipses. As she prophecied in Agua Viva much earlier in her career, "what I am writing goes on and I am bewitched."
"I am an abyss of myself.'"
"I am a memory of myself."
The book in which Clarice splits the atom and becomes a god. A Breath of Life is a twisted maze of layered literary artifice: Clarice creates a narrator, who creates Angela. Character of a character. Which one is Clarice? Both and neither, simultaneously.
A book about encountering the self, about splitting the self to know it, about the alienation of the self from the self. It's enormously interesting that she wrote it as she herself was dying, and happily appropriate that the last work in her corpus ends mid-thought with an ellipses. As she prophecied in Agua Viva much earlier in her career, "what I am writing goes on and I am bewitched."
The Art of Joy by Goliarda Sapienza
4.25
I saw god for the first 300 pages... after that it kind of loses the plot.
Modesta, I will never never forget you.
Modesta, I will never never forget you.
A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir
reflective
sad
4.5
Religion could do no more for my mother than the hope for posthumous success could do for me. Whether you think of it as heavenly or as earthly, if you love life immortality is no consolation for death.
Too Much of Life: Complete Chronicles by Clarice Lispector
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
for now
Maurice by E.M. Forster
4.0
It's crazy to think that simply allowing a gay character to have a happy ending was considered so revolutionary. It was beautifully done, and one of the best parts of the book: Maurice wins his freedom from the oppression of normality while Clive will always remain trapped by a prison of his own making. The way society betrays us and we betray ourselves in turn.
Ghost Passage by Josephine Balmer
3.0
I love the premise of this collection, but few individual poems stood out to me and overall it didn't quite meet expectations.
We are sinking back into History,
dark earth, the detritus of worn empires.
All we are. All we've been. All that matters.
We sow words in wood, through clay, on stone walls.
We know if we stay silent, darkness falls.
Those they had loved. All those who had loved them.
We are sinking back into History,
dark earth, the detritus of worn empires.
All we are. All we've been. All that matters.
We sow words in wood, through clay, on stone walls.
We know if we stay silent, darkness falls.
Those they had loved. All those who had loved them.
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Are we destined to become our mothers?
The Paths of Survival by Josephine Balmer
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
5.0
"I am absolved because I loved him."
Perfect, devastating, changed my world, never ever going to forget this.
Perfect, devastating, changed my world, never ever going to forget this.