The Hour of the Star

[Gail]

I finished reading a very short book originally published in 1977. The author moved with her family to Brazil as an infant after the problems after WW1 in the Ukraine where she was born. She traveled extensively and lived abroad but ultimately called Rio de Janeiro her home.
This book is narrated by a male writer whose subject is a young woman who has migrated to Rio from the northeast. It takes almost a third of the book for the writer to get going on his story about her as he is overwhelmed by the lack of substance in her story and the fact that she is hardly there. Truly nothing to write about. (view spoiler)[ Macabéa, our writer's main character is an innocent, naive, typist who does not reflect any of what a romantic story would make you think of when you think of innocent and naive. She is not Cinderella; she is dirty, smelly, knows almost nothing about the larger world, falls easily in love with the first boy that pays her any attention and quickly loses him because she has no presence and no motivation because nothing in her life prepared her for anything except typing and surviving. Just surviving. She really does not know what living is. (hide spoiler)]
The writer swears that Macabéa does not represent "a typical northeast girl" but he does say that he picked her out of many others that flow into the city for work.
The real focus of the book is not so much about Macabéa but about the writer's relationship to his character and his struggle to capture her life (or non-life).
Here is an example of his writing about her: "She thought people had to be happy. So she was. Before birth was she an idea? Before her birth was she dead? And after her birth she would die? What a thin slice of watermelon"
The writer over and over struggles with the boring story which he can hardly stand writing:
"...this story has no technique, nor style, it lives hand to mouth".
I found the book really wonderful as Lispector puts her odd phrases and strange fragmented sentences that jerk and trip all over the place in the service of something incredibly simple, a male writer attempting to capture the essence of a young girl without hope in the big city.
Lispector is ultimately very modern in style but mocks the modern through her main character: "I don't want to be all modern and invent trendy works to make myself look original".
At the very beginning of the book he writes: " Make no mistake, I only achieve simplicity with enormous effort".
And Lispector does achieve her simplicity
5 stars for me

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

3 stars

What am I missing? People that I trust loved this book, but I just found it dull and boring, too philosophical and wordy despite it being only 96 pages. I listened to the audio version and wonder if that is the reason I didn't connect.

[Gail]

Well, it isn't a fat juicy book that is for sure so it might just not be your cup of tea Kelly. I do wonder if the nature of her word play does come across better in writing. The book is largely about writing after all. Also, it probably is much better in Portuguese but I read it in translation. On the other hand I am reading Martin Fierro and I find I have to read it out loud as it doesn't seem to work for me at all as writing.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Gail wrote: "Well, it isn't a fat juicy book that is for sure so it might just not be your cup of tea Kelly. I do wonder if the nature of her word play does come across better in writing. The book is largely ab..."

Thanks Gail. I will probably try it again one day -- in writing.

[Valerie]

Read July 2019

This is the only Lispector I have read, so I was unprepared for the style. In fact, from summaries and reviews I thought the actual story would be the difficult part. It took me a few pages to ‘get into’ this novella, but once I did I enjoyed it quite a lot. However, to be clear I think there are layers that I missed. I do think this book bears rereading – to fully understand everything Lispector is saying, never mind to enjoy the writing and vitality of this novella. In this reading, I saw a sensitive and erudite writer/narrator who is inspired/compelled to write about a character who is the stand in for the social issues that plague Brazil and finds it a difficult task. 4*

[Daisey]

This is a book I'm really not sure how to review. It doesn't have much of a plot and there's a lot of rambling about writing about such an uninteresting character, but there was something about the writing that made me want to keep reading (and it was short so easy to get through). The note from the translator in the edition I read states that "no matter how odd Clarice Lispector's prose sounds in translation, it sounds just as unusual in the orginal." I think this sums up my thoughts. It was odd, but I was just intrigued enough to keep reading and find it interesting.

I read this for a Litsy #FoodAndLit challenge for Brazil. So, I combined an evening of reading it with a Brazilian inspired recipe for spicy coconut chicken over rice and vegetables followed by homemade chocolate brigadeiros. Maybe I should more often pair international reads with recipes.

[Gail]

Ah, now if you can only figure out how to share your cooking with your goodreads buddies.....

[Daisey]

Daisey wrote: "This is a book I'm really not sure how to review. It doesn't have much of a plot and there's a lot of rambling about writing about such an uninteresting character, but there was something about the..."

That would be amazing! I thought the same thing many times in seeing the posts from other participants on Litsy. I can't try all these recipes myself. :)

[Kristel]

Daisey wrote: "This is a book I'm really not sure how to review. It doesn't have much of a plot and there's a lot of rambling about writing about such an uninteresting character, but there was something about the..."

Love food and book pairings. Before zoom took over life, my f2f bookclub often did food pairings for bookclub night. Now we just watch others enjoy their beverage and food of choice.