Clarice Lispector
1964
Around 185 pages
This novel starts with Clarice Lispector's request that you only read her novel if your soul is already formed. What does that mean? Are we ever fully formed? I don't think is applies to me, because the idea that this is the finished product is too sad for me. I would never start a story this way, but I guess her style isn't meant to be inclusive.
G.H., a wealthy resident in a Rio de Janeiro penthouse, goes to clean the bedroom of the maid who just quit. She opens the wardrobe and kills a cockroach that scuttles out, which sends her into a bit of a tailspin. I guess that's understandable. If you thought there hasn't been enough cockroach vomit on this List, this is the course correction you've been waiting for.
Ick, this novel was gross. Lispector likely thought that people who focused on the disgusting elements of this story, rather than the mystical, were not worthy of reading her words. Not really my thing, but I did enjoy the revelation that G.H. was despised by the maid.
RATING: **--
Interesting Facts:
Shortly before her death, Lispector told a reporter that of all her books, G.H. was the one that "best corresponded to her demands as a writer."
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