As I said before, I am not an expert in literature, but I’ve read some good stuff. Some books are particularly special for me and I’d like to share some of them with you every week.
Clarice Lispector
Clarice was a Brazilian (naturalized) writer who had a very particular way of writing. Her books are not easy to find in America, but if you want to start knowing about her, you should purchase her most recently biography “Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector”, written by the American author Benjamin Moser.
One of my favorites is called “Uma Aprendizagem ou O Livro dos Prazeres (Yes, the book has two tittles!), which translating to English would be something like “An Apprenticeship or The Pleasure’s book”, which tells the love story between a primary teacher, Lóri, and a philosophy teacher, Ulisses.
Clarice was an existentialist; therefore her books are so intense and not easy to read. However, once you understand her way of writing and get into it, you just will start, my friend, a very special reading trip. Clarice was so brave and original that she put everything she has inside her soul into her books. It is amazing the way she questions life, herself, her feelings and makes us feel so huge and at the same time so small in this world. She goes so deep that you will be afraid of not coming back. But this is the best part of reading her: finding yourself on the way to the last page. Enjoy!
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/benjamin-moser/why-you-should-know-name-clarice-lispector
Mario Vargas Lhosa – Bad Girl
How many stories we have heard about a girl who loves a guy who doesn’t love her, betrays her, humiliates her, makes her suffer, etc? Pretty common, huh? Not the way this story is told and, in this case, the girl is a boy. Mario Vargas Lhosa has the talent of writing a vibrant love story that makes you support the bad girl and hates the good guy. I’ve heard that the author had lived a story like that in his own life and this story is part of his own biography. I don’t know, but I like to think that this is true just because it is much more romantic, of course. To sum up, this book is about true love, crazy passion and uncontrollable obsession. Feelings that, if you are lucky enough, you must sense once in lifetime. But, please, just once. 😉
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/books/review/Harrison.html