Near to the Wild Heart (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Her life was made up of complete little lives, of whole, closed circles, which isolated themselves from one another.

In February, she had transferred to the newspaper A Noite ( The Night), once one of the glories of Brazilian journalism but by then under the direction of the dictatorial Getúlio Vargas government. Mrs Woolf, wife of the manager, is a very celebrated author and, in her own way, more important than Galsworthy.Joana's wildness and barely suppressed violence, along with her linguistic creativity, are her most notable features. I’m glad I read Near to the Wild Heart, as it’s good to challenge oneself now and again, but I wanted to like it more than I did. This one is also quite a difficult read - the translation reflects the unusual linguistic style of the original, it is poetic and largely about emotions rather than actions (there is a plot of sorts, as it follows episodes in the life of Juana from early childhood through to the decision to leave her unfaithful husband Otávio). Narrative epiphanies and interior monologue frame the life of Joana, from her middle-class childhood through her unhappy marriage and its dissolution to transcendence, when she proclaims: “I shall arise as strong and comely as a young colt.

Given your enjoyment of novels featuring introspection, then I’d say it’s worth giving Lispector a try. So these thoughts on Near to the Wild Heart are all half-formed and written haphazardly – the book is affecting, curious, frustrating, beautiful, both luminous and incisive, but also incomprehensible and inscrutable. Something about it feeling less “fixed” than her later works – missing certain narrative handholds for the reader to grip onto amidst the free-flowing interior monologue and curious imagery. Great review – I remember this being a fairly challenging read (thanks for the link) – and that was in the context of the year I spent only reading experimental fiction!It was autumn, the leaves in the square were falling, and the grayness of the day helped underscore the beauty and luminosity of Clarice Lispector. You can unsubscribe from our list at any point by changing your preferences, or contacting us directly. However, as I have enjoyed recent novels with a great deal of introspection maybe I will be pleasantly surprised? Lispector is pushing language to its limits in striving to capture these ideas and internal thought processes.