ohwretchedme's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
valentinaccosta's review
4.0
ive read clarice lispector since i was like ten but i don’t think i ever payed enough attention to the intricacies of her stories… she leaves so much out for interpretation that the work you have to do as a reader to piece the story together completely immerses you in her world. love her forever and will be reading one of her full novels now
writersbeard's review
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
paulataua's review
4.0
What a find! I was so lucky to come across this. Lispector is such an original writer and the stories are so thought provoking. It is one big book with over eighty stories, and they are mostly stories that cannot be read one after the other. The Complete Stories has become my readers equivalent of a morning dip in the pool, and there are many such mornings to come.
I wrote that four years ago, but have since realized how difficult it is to do justice to a book of short stories, so thought I would just take one , 'The Fifth Story' and say something about it.
It tells five stories within two pages! The stories center around a narrator who prepares a recipe of sugar, flour, and plaster to kill cockroaches and an eerie significance grows with each story. There is something completely intriguing about Clarice Lispector. She is so difficult to follow at times and her writings are impossible to skim, but this very short story is a great introduction to her work. It’s one to love or hate, and it only takes five minutes to find out how you feel about it. I think it shows how important she is as a writer. It is pretty easy to find on the internet for free.
I wrote that four years ago, but have since realized how difficult it is to do justice to a book of short stories, so thought I would just take one , 'The Fifth Story' and say something about it.
It tells five stories within two pages! The stories center around a narrator who prepares a recipe of sugar, flour, and plaster to kill cockroaches and an eerie significance grows with each story. There is something completely intriguing about Clarice Lispector. She is so difficult to follow at times and her writings are impossible to skim, but this very short story is a great introduction to her work. It’s one to love or hate, and it only takes five minutes to find out how you feel about it. I think it shows how important she is as a writer. It is pretty easy to find on the internet for free.
iammyowngodandmartyr's review against another edition
2.0
EXTREMELY unimpressed with the introduction. This man just rambling on about how Lispector's writing is like witchcraft would be less irritating if there weren't such a long and shitty history of men associating women with witchcraft to trivialize/criminalize their work. Sometimes a woman is just weirdgood at writing and you don't have to use mysticism analogies to explain it to people. Like why are you pushing this so hard. She's not a fucking witch, dude. She's just a person who wrote things that people connected with.
Re: the stories themselves, I think short stories are like etudes and more fun to write/play than to read/listen to. Lispector's were often beautiful and bewildering but also depressing and outdated (e.g. "dusky like a Hindu", the story with "the He-she", every fat female character having intense self-loathing and/or moral deficiency, etc). Recommended for fans of Sylvia Plath.
Re: the stories themselves, I think short stories are like etudes and more fun to write/play than to read/listen to. Lispector's were often beautiful and bewildering but also depressing and outdated (e.g. "dusky like a Hindu", the story with "the He-she", every fat female character having intense self-loathing and/or moral deficiency, etc). Recommended for fans of Sylvia Plath.
ghosthardware's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
5.0
"Words precede and surpass me, they tempt and alter me, and if I am not careful it will be too late: things will be said without my having said them... My entanglement comes from how a carpet is made of so many threads that I can’t resign myself to following just one; my ensnarement comes from how one story is made of many stories."
mroznere's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
wincher2031's review against another edition
4.0
Although these stories are (for the most part) separate from each other, in being collected together they form the larger story of the writer's journey. The changes in voice and theme throughout life are mirrored in each part, from the amateurish First Stories to the poignant portfolio of Via Crucis of The Body.
Lispector's writing often straddles the line between commercial and literary fiction, bringing the criteria for either into question. In her own words "Someone read my stories and said that's not literature, it's trash. I agree. But there's a time for everything. There's also the time for trash."
And this is a collection which can go from trashy-pulp style yarns to hard hitting, introspective think pieces on a dime, surprisingly without an overwhelming tonal whiplash.
These collected stories are a mystery bag (much more good than bad), a bag that's at home both on the spinning rack of a transit lounge and under the scrutiny of a college seminar.
My favourite line:
"People look for reasons to live as if life alone doesn't justify itself."
Lispector's writing often straddles the line between commercial and literary fiction, bringing the criteria for either into question. In her own words "Someone read my stories and said that's not literature, it's trash. I agree. But there's a time for everything. There's also the time for trash."
And this is a collection which can go from trashy-pulp style yarns to hard hitting, introspective think pieces on a dime, surprisingly without an overwhelming tonal whiplash.
These collected stories are a mystery bag (much more good than bad), a bag that's at home both on the spinning rack of a transit lounge and under the scrutiny of a college seminar.
My favourite line:
"People look for reasons to live as if life alone doesn't justify itself."