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A review by saareman
The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector
4.0
A mysterious "83" stories, counted as "86", that are about to become "89."
Review of the New Directions Kindle eBook edition (2015)
February 13, 2023 Update The New Yorker online edition published A Lost Interview with Clarice Lispector from April 20, 1976 translated for the first time into English by biographer & editor Benjamin Moser. The audio of the original Portuguese language interview can also be listened to embedded in the article. This was not behind a paywall for me, so hopefully is accessible to everyone else also.
Graphic of Clarice Lispector, artist uncredited at The New Yorker
September 25, 2021 Update
No special addendum, but I loved this quote that I saw today on Twitter and wanted to add it.
"I write like I'm going to save someone's life. Probably my own life." - Clarice Lispector. Image sourced from the publisher Eterna Cadencia on Twitter, September 25, 2021.
This was a Kindle Deal of the Day for $1.99 Cdn. back in July 2017 and although I'm not a fan of eBooks it was impossible to resist at that price. It then took me about 8 months to February 2018 to read it since without an actual eBook reader I could only read it in spurts when I had the patience to scroll through it on a laptop. So it was not an ideal medium, but I could at least read at my own pace and when I was in the mood. To keep track over such a long time frame I made brief notes on each story. It was because of my note making that my count came up short, see further below. The collection isn't numbered otherwise.
To add to the mystery and allure, these supposed 86 "Complete Stories" are about to be supplanted by an even newer edition of 89 "Complete Stories" to be published June 26, 2018 by New Directions Publishing, see their blurb at https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-complete-stories/
It is actually a bit difficult to pin down what is even meant by the current 86 "Complete Stories" as any sort of standard headcount here would result in a total of 83. As best as I can figure, it becomes 86 if you add 83 + 1 "Explanation" (the foreword to the "[b:A via crucis do corpo|4170815|A Via Crucis do Corpo|Clarice Lispector|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557267164l/4170815._SX50_.jpg|2661847]" collection) + 1 "Appendix: The Useless Explanation" (used as an afterword for the entire collection) + 1 "Brasilia 2" (counting the 2nd part of "Brasilia" as a separate story, since it was written 12 years later than "Brasilia 1", the 2 are otherwise printed as one story though). There is actually a 4th option if you count the single story "Two Stories My Way" as an actual 2 stories, but there isn't as much of a clear separation there as there is in "Brasilia," so let's not go there.
As mentioned in the excellent foreword by biographer Benjamin Moser (see [b:Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector|5218096|Why This World A Biography of Clarice Lispector|Benjamin Moser|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348366953l/5218096._SY75_.jpg|5285339]) and the afterword by translator Katrina Dodson the lines between fiction and non-fiction are easily blurred in Lispector's work and further "stories" seem to appear as her journalism work is reassessed as creative non-fiction writing. Her surrealistic extended description / vision of the capital city "Brasilia" in the present collection is a perfect example of this.
The collection here spans juvenilia stories from 1940 through all of her published collections through to 2 stories uncompleted at her death in 1977. The translator's note explains the complex process of piecing together the collection from all the disparate sources and publishers. A timeline would have been helpful to follow the publishing history as it is a bit hard to visualize just as text.
Overall my favourites here were mainly from the published collections "The Foreign Legion" (orig. "[b:A Legião Estrangeira|2637125|A Legião Estrangeira|Clarice Lispector|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1251892741l/2637125._SX50_.jpg|148114]" and "Covert Joy" (orig. [b:Felicidade Clandestina|2988688|Felicidade Clandestina|Clarice Lispector|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557267758l/2988688._SY75_.jpg|3019146]) (the English translations are not available as separate volumes).
My 4 rating is a compromise as the overall work of putting together and translating this collection is definitely in 5 territory. It was just a bit too overwhelming to take all of it in though and there are likely to be sections where your enthusiasm and attention will flag esp. in the some too many "Desperate Housewives"-flavoured tales. And is it just me or did the theme of chicken and the egg seem to come up constantly?
Review of the New Directions Kindle eBook edition (2015)
February 13, 2023 Update The New Yorker online edition published A Lost Interview with Clarice Lispector from April 20, 1976 translated for the first time into English by biographer & editor Benjamin Moser. The audio of the original Portuguese language interview can also be listened to embedded in the article. This was not behind a paywall for me, so hopefully is accessible to everyone else also.
Graphic of Clarice Lispector, artist uncredited at The New Yorker
September 25, 2021 Update
No special addendum, but I loved this quote that I saw today on Twitter and wanted to add it.
"I write like I'm going to save someone's life. Probably my own life." - Clarice Lispector. Image sourced from the publisher Eterna Cadencia on Twitter, September 25, 2021.
This was a Kindle Deal of the Day for $1.99 Cdn. back in July 2017 and although I'm not a fan of eBooks it was impossible to resist at that price. It then took me about 8 months to February 2018 to read it since without an actual eBook reader I could only read it in spurts when I had the patience to scroll through it on a laptop. So it was not an ideal medium, but I could at least read at my own pace and when I was in the mood. To keep track over such a long time frame I made brief notes on each story. It was because of my note making that my count came up short, see further below. The collection isn't numbered otherwise.
To add to the mystery and allure, these supposed 86 "Complete Stories" are about to be supplanted by an even newer edition of 89 "Complete Stories" to be published June 26, 2018 by New Directions Publishing, see their blurb at https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-complete-stories/
It is actually a bit difficult to pin down what is even meant by the current 86 "Complete Stories" as any sort of standard headcount here would result in a total of 83. As best as I can figure, it becomes 86 if you add 83 + 1 "Explanation" (the foreword to the "[b:A via crucis do corpo|4170815|A Via Crucis do Corpo|Clarice Lispector|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557267164l/4170815._SX50_.jpg|2661847]" collection) + 1 "Appendix: The Useless Explanation" (used as an afterword for the entire collection) + 1 "Brasilia 2" (counting the 2nd part of "Brasilia" as a separate story, since it was written 12 years later than "Brasilia 1", the 2 are otherwise printed as one story though). There is actually a 4th option if you count the single story "Two Stories My Way" as an actual 2 stories, but there isn't as much of a clear separation there as there is in "Brasilia," so let's not go there.
As mentioned in the excellent foreword by biographer Benjamin Moser (see [b:Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector|5218096|Why This World A Biography of Clarice Lispector|Benjamin Moser|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348366953l/5218096._SY75_.jpg|5285339]) and the afterword by translator Katrina Dodson the lines between fiction and non-fiction are easily blurred in Lispector's work and further "stories" seem to appear as her journalism work is reassessed as creative non-fiction writing. Her surrealistic extended description / vision of the capital city "Brasilia" in the present collection is a perfect example of this.
The collection here spans juvenilia stories from 1940 through all of her published collections through to 2 stories uncompleted at her death in 1977. The translator's note explains the complex process of piecing together the collection from all the disparate sources and publishers. A timeline would have been helpful to follow the publishing history as it is a bit hard to visualize just as text.
Overall my favourites here were mainly from the published collections "The Foreign Legion" (orig. "[b:A Legião Estrangeira|2637125|A Legião Estrangeira|Clarice Lispector|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1251892741l/2637125._SX50_.jpg|148114]" and "Covert Joy" (orig. [b:Felicidade Clandestina|2988688|Felicidade Clandestina|Clarice Lispector|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557267758l/2988688._SY75_.jpg|3019146]) (the English translations are not available as separate volumes).
My 4 rating is a compromise as the overall work of putting together and translating this collection is definitely in 5 territory. It was just a bit too overwhelming to take all of it in though and there are likely to be sections where your enthusiasm and attention will flag esp. in the some too many "Desperate Housewives"-flavoured tales. And is it just me or did the theme of chicken and the egg seem to come up constantly?