Utterly magnificent. ( )

23. The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector
translation: from Portuguese by Katrina Dodson, 2015
introduction: Benjamin Moser, titled Glamour and Grammar, 2015
narrators: Gabrielle De Cuir, Susan Denaker, Hillary Huber, Kate Orsini, Emily Rankin, John Rubenstein, Stefan Rudnicki
published: 2015
format: 22:53 audible audiobook
acquired: March 24 listened: Mar 24 – May 11
rating: 5
genre/style: modern classic short stories theme: random audio
locations: Brazil
about the author: Ukrainian-born Jewish Brazilian novelist, 1920-1977

sections: The book is broken into sections that roughly correspond to Clarice's published short story collections
- Glamour and Grammar - an introduction by [[Benjamin Moser]]*(2015)
- First Stories - corresponds to Alguns contos, or Some Stories (1952)
- [548587::Family Ties] - Laços de família (1960)
- [1396967::The Foreign Legion] - A legião estrangeira (1964)
- “Back of the Drawer” – a subset of the [1396967::The Foreign Legion]
- Covert Joy - [1728538::Felicidade clandestina] (1971)
- The Imitation of the Rose - [28089::A imitação da rosa] (1973)
- Where You Were at Night - [2553642::Onde estivestes de noite] (1974)
- [1129728::The Via Crucis of the Body] - A via crucis do corpo (1974)
- Visions of Splendor – one story, [650446::Brasilia] - based on her visits to the Brazilian capital in 1962 and 1974. The city was built in 1960
- Final Stories – three stories from two posthumously published collections: Not to Forget - [6317822::Para não esquecer] (1978) & Beauty and the Beast - [2553638::A bela e a fera] (1979)
- Appendix – Clarice’s comments on her writing of [548587::Family Ties]. It was published in the “Back of the Drawer” section of [1396967::The Foreign Legion], 1964
- Translator’s Note by [[Katrina Dodson]], 2015

*Benjamin Moser has published a biography of Clarice, [Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector], and has written a fantastic introduction here

This was my first time reading Clarice Lispector. She was defined for me early on in this collection, first by an excellent introduction, and then by her early stories, which are so fiercely direct and confident. In the midst of these early stories, especially after reading a longer story called Obsession, I wrote: "I'm really enjoying this on audio so far. These stories. Each one the narrator is looking you straight in the eye, speaking in full confidence, clear, rebellious and defiant, no matter how crazy they get. It's a wonderful series of studies of the desire for rebellion against the confines of life, the intent and act, and the inevitable compromises." I enjoyed this whole collection, but nothing else would inspire this response.

Obsession was for me one of most powerful stories. It brings up for me Amos Oz's [My Michael], and Leonard Cohen's Master Song. And I liked to imagine both artists having this story nearby as they wrote, Oz for the voice, and Cohen for the impression. She does not ever come back to such raw writing in her stories. After these early stories, her stories evolved into different styles, but always there is a little distance, a normal distance, between writer and reader. These are 85 stories in 23 hours. They are short and pass by quickly, making stronger and weaker impressions. Sometimes they are very complex and sometimes they are quite simple, even sketches. At one extreme "A via crucis do corpo was written in three days after a challenge from her publisher, Álvaro Pacheco, to write three stories about themes relating to sex" (quoting Wikipedia, but it's also in mentioned in this book). I was certainly partial to her early stories and I also especially enjoyed [1396967::The Foreign Legion], which was full of deeply worked out stories. I wasn't crazy about [548587::Family Ties], which I think is one of her more popular works, but felt to me like a collection of sketches. And I didn't take to story [650446::Brasilia] as some worshipping webpages do - but then I have no awareness of Brazil or its capital.

This is a collection to mull over. As the introduction points out, it covers a life, youth, marriage, motherhood, aging, the confines of being a woman and a mother. Working through was an experience, and created a kind of reader's remove, or at least took me away. The seven audiobook narrators are consistently very good and that helped a lot. The collection goes a lot of places, and it's odd to have it all come to end in a translator's note. It wants a writer's epilogue, a retrospective. She wrote in 1974 in [650446::Brasilia] about the crazy plans for the city to celebrate the turn of the millennium in 2000 and wondered what she might think of it, should she see it. But she died rather suddenly of ovarian cancer in 1977, aged 57, diagnosed after she completed what would be her final novel.

Recommended.

2022
https://www.librarything.com/topic/341027#7838415 ( )

Gran descubrta e inspiración deste 2020 ( )

Gran descubrta e inspiración deste 2020 ( )

Autora de brillantes y personalísimos relatos que figuran entre los más emblemáticos de la literatura brasileña, Clarice Lispector está unánimemente considerada como una de las más importantes voces del siglo XX. Su figura y su legado irradian a día de hoy el mismo poderoso magnetismo que ha venido cautivando a los lectores de todo el mundo desde que en 1943 apareciera publicado su primer texto.

Todos los cuentos recoge por primera vez en un único volumen la totalidad de su narrativa breve, reconocida como la vertiente más rica, fascinante y acabada de su obra. En su centro, siempre con el inimitable hálito que Lispector supo insuflar a todos sus escritos, se encuentra la suma de sus inquietudes vitales: el impacto abrumador de la realidad cotidiana, lo efímero de la fulguración poética o el perpetuo interrogante sobre la identidad femenina y la condición del ser humano.