Near to the Wild Heart (Penguin Modern Classics)

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I have found that Lispector’s novels, although brief, take quite a bit of time and concentration to understand and appreciate. Family Ties" (1960) is a collection of short stories revealing Lispector's existentialist view of life and demonstrating that even family ties and social relationships are temporary.

Tannery Arts is a small, independent charity concerned with supporting the professional development of emerging and established artists through the provision of affordable studios, promoting their practice through opportunities to exhibit work, develop projects, generate partnerships with local authorities, private property owners and social housing organisations as well as engage in learning activities.For younger bookworms – and nostalgic older ones too – there’s the Slightly Foxed Cubs series, in which we’ve reissued a number of classic nature and historical novels. The reason seems to be that its language sounded completely un-Brazilian, as the poet Lêdo Ivo wrote: “Clarice Lispector was a foreigner. Yes, yes, there was the truth: they existed more than other people, they were the symbol of the thing in the thing itself. To become a subscriber to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly Magazine, please visit our subscriptions page.

Just a goddess giving birth to a first child feeling vulnerable and inexperienced, and destined to make mistakes and lose control when the child grows up and claims an independent life. As a woman she is self-contained, as beautiful and unforgiving as a diamond, quite able to dispense with the need for human company or affection.Still in bed, she had thought about sand, sea, drinking seawater at her dead aunt’s house, about feeling, above all feeling. When her father dies she is forced to live with an aunt and uncle who can’t seem to connect with their free-spirited niece so they send her off to a boarding school. Passage after passage I was hypnotized by Joana's lingering thoughts and affinities; dive into her ocean of solitudes and walk the corners of her family surroundings. Even so, under his “spare me, spare me” gaze, she would open her hand from time to time and let a little bird dart out. She published her first novel, Near to the Wildheart in 1943 when she was just twenty-three, and the next year was awarded the Graça Aranha Prize for the best first novel.

It was a pleasant surprise, so (of course) I put a hold on it, and it arrived in a fairly short time – which is why I have the pleasure of introducing today, for the first time on the blog, the woman the Brazilian press named Hurricane Clarice. It becomes an impossible task, because she remains in a constant state of self-evaluation and self-actualization. As it follows Joana's life from childhood through unhappy marriage and beyond, it seems fairly straightforward.

At first I though there were only two Lispectors in my TBR, but then I found another one hiding at the back of one of my shelves. The Hogarth Press where I’m working, is in the heart of the literary world, with authors coming in all the time. Joana's wildness and barely suppressed violence, along with her linguistic creativity, are her most notable features. It’s a piece of artwork, a narrative collage, something to study, not something to devour or even to enjoy, although there is enjoyment in the reading of it. Ed è così che nel suo primo libro Clarice può disegnare un autoritratto che è anche il racconto di un sofferto ménage à trois, sovrapponendo ed alternando con grande sapienza i punti di vista, come se pensieri e sentimenti fossero malattie virali che circolano fra gli attori del dramma corrodendo i limiti dell’identità e dell'alterità, facendo di ognuno lo specchio segreto di chi gli sta di fronte.