

Rodrigo, a well-off and cultured man, struggles to tell the story of the sad life of Macabéa, an unhygienic, sickly, unlovable, and an altogether "un-ideal" typist living in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. In this slim novella, Lispector uses an intricate narrative structure in order to represent a peculiar state of mind. It's an experience you won't forget.-Charles Larson "Counter Punch" ( 12:00:00 AM) The Hour of the Star trips up our concept of the novel. This is without a doubt one of the most audacious and affecting works of fiction I've ever read.- "Barnes and Noble Review" ( 12:00:00 AM)Ī new translation of Clarice Lispector's searing last novel, The Hour of the Star by Lispector biographer Benjamin Moser-with an introduction by Colm Tóibín-reveals the mesmerizing force of the revitalized modernist's Rio-set tale of a young naif, who, along with the piquantly intrusive narrator, challenges the reader's notions of identity, storytelling, and love.- "" ( 12:00:00 AM) The Hour of the Star is a romance, then, between stupidity and its neurotic observer, a restless stretching away from form, tradition, and the stupefying rules they impose on writing.- "The New Inquiry" ( 12:00:00 AM)

The only antidote to stupidity is an agitated intelligence constantly prowling for blank spots in one's outward seeming. The reader finds herself in the throes of a master, rendered speechless with awe and terror.- "The Brooklyn Rail" This text investigates the knowledge of not knowing and the rich poverty of the inner void with stratagems of obfuscation, leaps of language, and suspensions of syntax and form that are perhaps best received by the gut.- "The Faster Times" If she does - dare I say it? - touch you, she touches you like nothing else you've ever read.-Benjamin Mosher "Vanity Fair"

In less than one hundred pages, Clarice Lispector tells a brilliantly multi-faceted and searing story.-Jesse Larsen "500 Great Books by Women" If her work is thoughtful and poetic, distinguished by touching insight and human sympathy, it is also full of irony and wild humor.- "Saturday Review" Lispector is the premier Latin American woman prose writer of this century.- "The New York Times"Ī genius of character and a literary magician.- "Publishers Weekly"Īn artist of vivid imagination. I felt physically jolted by genius.-Katherine Boo A truly remarkable writer.-Jonathan Franzen
