Publishers Weekly
08/01/2022
A decade of crônicas—short essays and anecdotes—published by Lispector (The Passion According to G.H.) primarily in the Jornal do Brasil from 1967 up to her death in 1977 come together in this rewarding work. Lispector asks in one entry “Is the crônica a story? Is it a conversation? Is it the summation of a state of mind?” and then, in pieces ranging from a few sentences to several pages, she shows the form as all those and more. As she ruminates on the world around her and within herself, Lispector blends casual meditations on the mundane with philosophical reveries on such topics as identity, death, and spirituality. A prime time TV host is absurd and “sadistic,” insomnia brings with it loneliness, and “Saturday in the wind is the rose of the week.” Lispector also contemplates the act of writing, a process she describes as “remembering the thing that never existed” and “rather like selling your soul.” Her prose shifts smoothly from poetic and serious—“The most difficult thing is doing nothing: facing the cosmos alone”—to playful and comedic—“Dear God, who could possibly love her? The answer: dear God.” Lispector’s fans will relish dipping into these thoughtful musings. (Sept.)
Times Literary Supplement - Lorna Sage
"One might have thought that so stern a ‘new novelist’ would scorn the chatty style required. Far from it: she discovered her own extraordinary idiom–intimate, revelatory, mystifactory. This long flirtation with her readers was a triumphant metamorphosis for the avant garde author."
Bookforum - Rachel Kushner
"Clarice Lispector had a diamond-hard intelligence, a visionary instinct, and a sense of humor that veered from naïf wonder to wicked comedy….She attempts to capture what it is to think our existence as we are in it—in the ‘marvelous scandal,’ as Lispector puts it, of life. An astounding body of work that has no real corollary inside literature or outside it."
The Guardian - Madoc Cairns
"For those unfamiliar with her, this book opens a door into her uniquely challenging and rewarding body of work. Stretching over a decade – and across nearly 800 pages – the pieces, some amounting to a few sentences, some many pages long, make up a self-portrait in bits and pieces. The result is, like Lispector herself, witty, mystical, surreal and profound: a treasure to return to again and again."
The Paris Review
"If she played with the superficial truth, it was in service, she believed, of exposing one deeper, of passing readers a brief-lit lantern for the moonless dark of ourselves, even if that light revealed, sometimes, more contradiction, more chaos, more fluttering soul-storm. Her crônicas muddied demarcations between nonfiction and fiction, resurrecting the oldest question of form: Where does nonfiction truly end and fiction begin, and what do we do with texts where we do not know the answer?"
The Yale Review - Jared Marcel Pollen
"Funny, dark, whimsical, intimate, and always self-questioning, the crônicas seemed to touch everything: reflections on writing, motherhood, the seasons, depression, love, suffering, death.”"
Riot Material - John Biscello
"[T]his is Clarice Lispector as one-woman chorus and psychic weather forecaster, and the charm, wit and engagement that she brings to her columns transcends barriers. "
Vulture - J. Howard Rosier
"No two columns are alike: strands of dialogue, observed scenes, diaristic entries, life advice, even the author admiring herself in the mirror…Too Much of Life is a huge addition to an already impressive collection of evidence that Lispector could transcribe a guestbook and make it interesting."
Bookforum
Clarice Lispector had a diamond-hard intelligence, a visionary instinct, and a sense of humor that veered from naif wonder to wicked comedy...[about] the ‘marvelous scandal,’ as Lispector puts it, of life."
Times Literary Supplement (London)
This long flirtation with her readers was a triumphant metamorphosis for the avant garde author."
Paris Review
Her crônicas muddied demarcations between nonfiction and fiction, resurrecting the oldest question of form: Where does nonfiction truly end and fiction begin?”
The New York Times
Sphinx, sorceress, sacred monster. The revival of the hypnotic Clarice Lispector has been one of the true literary events of the 21st century.”
Library Journal
★ 08/01/2022
A good place to begin a review of novelist Lispector's crônicas is at the end. In "The Making Of," the final entry of this appealing 750-page compilation of Lispector's short essays, her son, Paulo Gurgel Valente, explains how he came to collect and republish his mother's Jornal do Brasil columns (written between 1967 and 1977), along with her other newspaper submissions. The works of Lispector (1920–77), a Ukrainian-born Brazilian, are now collected in a devotional format for readers, as page after page of thoughts, worries, inspirations, and commentaries. Many of Lispector's columns focus on print newspapers, typewriters, and writing, specifically her theory that a writer cannot give lessons in writing, even when repeatedly asked. Other topics include men, women, sons, maids, cooks, and taxi drivers. Lispector's ruminations on weariness and rage in "Feast and Famine," originally published in 1968, speak to contemporary readers with observations on loving another person, success as a mistake, and the Beatles. VERDICT An excellent collection for readers who enjoy commentaries and observations from a wise, entertaining, realistic writer. Good choice for readers who enjoy essays by Anne Lamott and Ann Patchett.—Joyce Sparrow
