For Writers and Readers: Clarice Lispector

 I heard of Clarice Lispector while in prison, without being able to obtain any of her stories. That changed today.

“The Fifth Story”  was published by Literary Hub. Go read it. It seems very flimsy, a little whimsical, then it hits - you have been sucked into it. I was wondering who was this narrator whose words wrapped around my mind. 

I want to read more.

For more on Lispector and this latest collection, I offer At the Point of the Sword, Magic from Los Angeles Review of Books.

Over the year, I’ve learned that the only key theme to bear in mind when reading Lispector is rebirth. Moments of reawakening and epiphany—she writes about them often. Her short stories are cocoons that turn into chrysalises over and over again. In the last story of the collection, “That’s Where I’m Going,” Lispector writes, “Where a thought expires is an idea, at the final breath of joy another joy, at the point of the sword magic—that’s where I’m going.” Lispector is most interested in transformation. Reading Lispector in translation—a metamorphosis of its own—offers one of the richest, most realized ways to encounter her writing. New Directions’ multi-tiered project is perhaps the best approach to her work, making it easier to find the core of Lispector. In “That’s Where I’m Going,” she writes, “I go, witch that I am. And I am transmuted.” Her uniquely playful prose, always full of surprise and charm, comes vibrantly and unmistakably alive in the hands of the myriad translators entrusted to bring us her words. She sounds like herself. She is always—even in her bleakest, grossest, strangest moments—delightful.

Yes, delightful.

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