Name: The Hour of the Star
Rating: 4.158227848101266 (158 reviews)
ISBN: 9780811211901

Clarice Lispector

In a haunting psychological tale of despair and freedom, Macabea is ugly, underfed, sickly, and unloved yet she fascinates Rodrigo because she is unaware of how unhappy she should be

The Hour of the Star

New translation; previous translation published in 1992.

The Hour of the Star (Second Edition)

This book talks about a woman's life via the third party being the narrator. This is a mediocre woman who continues to live her without feeling much and keeping everything reserved due to her harsh past. The book starts off modest then the ending is pretty shocking, which gets you sad or emotional, in my case sad and annoyed coz I wasnt appreciating it. However, the last chapters of the book where the narrator starts venting out is really relatable and well written: makes you realise the true moral of the life. Live big and live with feeling and experiencing it all, anything can happen so might as well make it worthwhile.

The ending is what seals this book, brings you in a state where you reflect alot and start cherishing every event coz things can just be so sudden.

Aarush Arora

This book talks about a woman's life via the third party being the narrator. This is a mediocre woman who continues to live her without feeling much and keeping everything reserved due to her harsh past. The book starts off modest then the ending is pretty shocking, which gets you sad or emotional, in my case sad and annoyed coz I wasnt appreciating it. However, the last chapters of the book where the narrator starts venting out is really relatable and well written: makes you realise the true moral of the life. Live big and live with feeling and experiencing it all, anything can happen so might as well make it worthwhile.

The ending is what seals this book, brings you in a state where you reflect alot and start cherishing every event coz things can just be so sudden.

The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector's consummate final novel, may well be her masterpiece. Narrated by the cosmopolitan Rodrigo S.M., this brief, strange, and haunting tale is the story of Macabéa, one of life's unfortunates. Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a poor living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola, and her rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly, underfed, sickly, and unloved. Rodrigo recoils from her wretchedness, and yet he cannot avoid the realization that for all her outward misery, Macabéa is inwardly free. She doesn't seem to know how unhappy she should be. As Macabéa heads toward her absurd death, Lispector employs her pathetic heroine against her urbane, empty narrator--edge of despair to edge of despair--and, working them like a pair of scissors, she cuts away the reader's preconceived notions about poverty, identity, love, and the art of fiction. In her last book she takes readers close to the true mystery of life and leaves us deep in Lispector territory indeed.

100th Anniversary Edition

eu achei esse livro muito divertido, pra falar a verdade. a clarice é irônica de um jeito fascinante e até a morte da macabéa me fez rir porque era a coisa mais engraçada e irônica que poderia acontecer naquele momento e naquela cena. é uma leitura muito fluida e gostosinha, não foi o primeiro que li da clarice mas é excelente pra quem quer começar a ler ela, acho que dá a tônica do trabalho dela e é fundamental pra entender a escrita dela.

vivi

“Aku sendirian di dunia dan aku tidak percaya pada siapa pun, semua orang berbohong, bahkan kadang pada waktu bercinta, aku tidak berpikir seseorang bisa berbicara dengan yang lain, kebenaran hanya datang kepadaku ketika aku sendirian.”

Ia bernama Macabéa, seorang gadis naif dari wilayah timur laut Brasil yang miskin. Tinggal di kota Rio de Janeiro yang hiruk pikuk, keberadaan Macabéa ditandai dengan ketidaksadaran akan penderitaannya sendiri. Pertemuannya dengan seorang peramal memberinya pengharapan tentang pergantian nasib, namun takdir mempunyai rencana berbeda. Novel yang menghantui ini merupakan salah satu karya utama Clarice Lispector, merangkai narasi kepolosan yang dihancurkan oleh kenyataan pahit, menantang pembaca untuk menghadapi kesenjangan hidup yang mencolok mata.

Waktu Bintang

when i finished reading this i was mystified by how many 5 star reviews this book got. i could not resist reading through the reviews & i think 

this book suffered the same problem i had with 

 as always in lispector's) prose & writing style, AWFULLLLLLLLLL narrator that affected my rating of the book. oh my god the way most of my annotations towards the latter end of the book were just eyerolling him!!! sekitar 40 halaman pertama aku masih suka keseluruhan diskusi-meta tentang menulis-atau-tidaklah yang narator ini rasakan tentang (ceritanya) Macabéa, tetapi saat ia menulis pada hal. 43: 

"Mimpi-mimpi ini, begitu banyak interioritas, kosong karena tidak memiliki inti esensial dari pengalaman sebelumnya

 SIAPA LO ANJ?????????? maaf kemarahannya meluap-luap soalnya hal ini juga aku rasakan tentang narasi 

 oleh Pessoa. anggapan bahwa orang lain yang "biasa"; para "normies" "NPC" semuanya dangkal dan tidak memiliki interioritas yang patut dikulik itu merupakan jalanan licin ke gampangnya mendehumanisasi satu sama lain. lah kan ada konteks kenapa mereka bisa 

 se"dangkal" itu? why is your curiosity only stopping there? why are you presenting their lack of depth as inherent?!?!?! framing Macabéa's actions, her lack of self-preserverance, as something mysterious when you know damn well why that is. i can't seem to separate Macabéa the character vs. her as a representation of impoverished women all across the Global South being gazed upon this haughty man who feels the authority for her story to be written by him, that 

 alone understands her implicit — woe is her, to not know just how unhappy she is. WHO ARE YOU???? just because she doesn't know how to word it out explicitly doesn't mean she doesn't 

it in her marrows; in the way she doesn't correct anyone's misunderstanding of her words, the way she doesn't stand up for herself.

madina

when i finished reading this i was mystified by how many 5 star reviews this book got. i could not resist reading through the reviews & i think @clubsoda's review summed it up for me.

this book suffered the same problem i had with My Year of Rest and Relaxation — good (in moshfegh's case, amazing as always in lispector's) prose & writing style, AWFULLLLLLLLLL narrator that affected my rating of the book. oh my god the way most of my annotations towards the latter end of the book were just eyerolling him!!! sekitar 40 halaman pertama aku masih suka keseluruhan diskusi-meta tentang menulis-atau-tidaklah yang narator ini rasakan tentang (ceritanya) Macabéa, tetapi saat ia menulis pada hal. 43: "Mimpi-mimpi ini, begitu banyak interioritas, kosong karena tidak memiliki inti esensial dari pengalaman sebelumnya—ekstase, katakanlah begitu." SIAPA LO ANJ?????????? maaf kemarahannya meluap-luap soalnya hal ini juga aku rasakan tentang narasi The Book of Disquiet oleh Pessoa. anggapan bahwa orang lain yang "biasa"; para "normies" "NPC" semuanya dangkal dan tidak memiliki interioritas yang patut dikulik itu merupakan jalanan licin ke gampangnya mendehumanisasi satu sama lain. lah kan ada konteks kenapa mereka bisa terlihat se"dangkal" itu? why is your curiosity only stopping there? why are you presenting their lack of depth as inherent?!?!?! framing Macabéa's actions, her lack of self-preserverance, as something mysterious when you know damn well why that is. i can't seem to separate Macabéa the character vs. her as a representation of impoverished women all across the Global South being gazed upon this haughty man who feels the authority for her story to be written by him, that he alone understands her implicit — woe is her, to not know just how unhappy she is. WHO ARE YOU???? just because she doesn't know how to word it out explicitly doesn't mean she doesn't feel it in her marrows; in the way she doesn't correct anyone's misunderstanding of her words, the way she doesn't stand up for herself.

Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola and her philandering rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly and unloved. Yet telling her story is the narrator Rodrigo S.M., who tries to direct Macabéa's fate but comes to realize that, for all her outward misery, she is inwardly free. Slyly subverting ideas of poverty, identity, love and the art of writing itself, Clarice Lispector's audacious last novel is a haunting portrayal of innocence in a bad world.

Hour of the Star

My God, I just remembered that we die. But me too?

Eva Cace

“who hasn’t ever wondered: am i a monster or is this what it means to be a person?”

i’m a bit confused why the hour of the star is considered her last novel. i thought a breath of life was her final novel..? is it that the hour of the star was finished and published while she was still alive, and a breath of life was unfinished?

while we’re on the topic, i think there are many interesting comparisons one can make between the hour of the star and a breath of life. they both include complex relationships between the narrator and protagonist. despite their differences, i do wonder how much of these four characters bled into one another near the end of clarice’s life

i think this quote from the introduction sums up what to expect: 

“[the narrative] moves from a deep awareness about the tragedy of being alive to a sly allowance for the fact that existence is a comedy.”

i circled back to this quote from the introduction after reaching the halfway mark in the book and.... yeah, it’s just a perfect description. this book is uniquely funny and satirical but still just as profound as i always expect from ms. clarice

i love love love macabéa and find her to be one of clarice’s most beautiful and uniquely human protagonists. her character and her relationship with the world and other people was easily my favorite part of this book

“it’s so good to be alive, don’t you think?”

it’s interesting to me that this is clarice’s most popular book when it feels the closest to the real world. many of her other books feel like you’re either sinking into the ground or soaring into the sky, but in the hour of the star, and in the company of macabéa.... instead of being pulled into clarice’s mind, clarice is renting space in yours 

smile??

“who hasn’t ever wondered: am i a monster or is this what it means to be a person?” (p.7)

i’m a bit confused why the hour of the star is considered her last novel. i thought a breath of life was her final novel..? is it that the hour of the star was finished and published while she was still alive, and a breath of life was unfinished?

while we’re on the topic, i think there are many interesting comparisons one can make between the hour of the star and a breath of life. they both include complex relationships between the narrator and protagonist. despite their differences, i do wonder how much of these four characters bled into one another near the end of clarice’s life

i think this quote from the introduction sums up what to expect: “[the narrative] moves from a deep awareness about the tragedy of being alive to a sly allowance for the fact that existence is a comedy.” (p.xi)

i circled back to this quote from the introduction after reaching the halfway mark in the book and.... yeah, it’s just a perfect description. this book is uniquely funny and satirical but still just as profound as i always expect from ms. clarice

i love love love macabéa and find her to be one of clarice’s most beautiful and uniquely human protagonists. her character and her relationship with the world and other people was easily my favorite part of this book

“it’s so good to be alive, don’t you think?” (p.43)

it’s interesting to me that this is clarice’s most popular book when it feels the closest to the real world. many of her other books feel like you’re either sinking into the ground or soaring into the sky, but in the hour of the star, and in the company of macabéa.... instead of being pulled into clarice’s mind, clarice is renting space in yours 

(explosion)

I love the way that Lispector writes like wowowowwww

Reese Claro

gosh, such beautiful prose, both tragic and comic I don’t know how to explain (like Macabéa). But what a skinny legend this is!!! absolutely floored by her writing—artistic, enigmatic, introspective, quiet but profound. It’s difficult to encapsulate the essence of this book with words, what lies beyond the lines and the true depth it delivers despite it being such a thin novella. it’s literary art, in every page that could only be experienced by the reader. 

maderinn⟢

this book is made of nothing, a meditation on writing that comprises three interconnected layers: the narrator, macabéa, and clarice herself as they challenge each other on how to face the story and the layers that continue to flow throughout the pulses created in the book. it feels like they are all annoyed with each other and i love it. the story intentionally fails here and is being told very poorly as a way to show how language fails people like macabéa.

personality really comes out through the writing i think this book is magnificent. so much questions so much meditations on life that has no answers and no meaning. book feels so unfinished but it feels so intentional as a way to express that a life so small and unseen feels like a moral failure and yet as a writer it must be told no matter how devastating the writer deems it to be — symbolic of what a brutal world does to the story written by a form of humanity who doesn’t believe in it. this is perfect.

this book is made of nothing, a meditation on writing that comprises three interconnected layers: the narrator, macabéa, and clarice herself as they challenge each other on how to face the story and the layers that continue to flow throughout the pulses created in the book. it feels like they are all annoyed with each other and i love it. the story intentionally fails here and is being told very poorly as a way to show how language fails people like macabéa.

personality really comes out through the writing i think this book is magnificent. so much questions so much meditations on life that has no answers and no meaning. book feels so unfinished but it feels so intentional as a way to express that a life so small and unseen feels like a moral failure and yet as a writer it must be told no matter how devastating the writer deems it to be — symbolic of what a brutal world does to the story written by a form of humanity who doesn’t believe in it. this is perfect.

Doesn't feels like a book, more like a mirror held up to the parts of life we try not to look at. Not feel-good read, yes, since the book will wreck you quietly. If you crave literary that hurts beautifully and philosophical mind spirals this is 1000% for you.

Had to get to page 20 before it was less hard work but very unusual and impressive. She’s a super cool writer and I thought it had a lot of impact. Confusing though 

Saskia Hughes 

unsettling but astute account of poverty via the male gaze directed at a girl. the voyeurism strips naked macabea's existence, making it extremely uncomfortable to experience, and although he does not veer into outrightly sexualising her, the mania through which the unnamed narrator describes macabea might as well be. on the other hand, he handles her as he would a feather. this points to a deeper truth of a strand of obsession, of an unrelenting lust that crumbles into discomfort for the recipient. think: squeezing too tightly and bruising a petal that one wanted to simply gently touch. 

the events of the final portion makes clear how individuals can be unaware of their material conditions, and how easily it is to lapse into indignity that appears soteriological 

Ghee

unsettling but astute account of poverty via the male gaze directed at a girl. the voyeurism strips naked macabea's existence, making it extremely uncomfortable to experience, and although he does not veer into outrightly sexualising her, the mania through which the unnamed narrator describes macabea might as well be. on the other hand, he handles her as he would a feather. this points to a deeper truth of a strand of obsession, of an unrelenting lust that crumbles into discomfort for the recipient. think: squeezing too tightly and bruising a petal that one wanted to simply gently touch. 

the events of the final portion makes clear how individuals can be unaware of their material conditions, and how easily it is to lapse into indignity that appears soteriological 

snappy read too! 80-odd pages

Read it a little too fast because I needed to drop it back off at the library today! I was SO enamored with Lispector’s forward to the book, much more than the book itself. Definitely excited to sink my teeth into some different titles of hers. The experimental prose worked really well at times but at other points it didn’t land for me. I’ll probably revisit this one after reading some more of her work.

Been reading a lot of novellas for the first time this summer and this is the 3rd one in a row I’ve read that ends in death! Is this a thing?? Is novella just 70-100 pages and then boom main character or narrator dies? 

“And now —now all I can do is light a cigarette and go home.

My God, I just remembered that we die. But —but me too?!

Don't forget that for now it's strawberry season.

Annie Millman

Read it a little too fast because I needed to drop it back off at the library today! I was SO enamored with Lispector’s forward to the book, much more than the book itself. Definitely excited to sink my teeth into some different titles of hers. The experimental prose worked really well at times but at other points it didn’t land for me. I’ll probably revisit this one after reading some more of her work.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Been reading a lot of novellas for the first time this summer and this is the 3rd one in a row I’ve read that ends in death! Is this a thing?? Is novella just 70-100 pages and then boom main character or narrator dies? 

Loved the last line so much…

“And now —now all I can do is light a cigarette and go home.

My God, I just remembered that we die. But —but me too?!

Don't forget that for now it's strawberry season.

Yes.”

Último livro escrito por Clarice Lispector, A hora da estrela é também uma despedida. Lançada pouco antes de sua morte em 1977, a obra conta os momentos de criação do escritor Rodrigo S. M. (a própria Clarice) narrando a história de Macabéa, uma alagoana órfã, virgem e solitária, criada por uma tia tirana, que a leva para o Rio de Janeiro, onde trabalha como datilógrafa. Em A hora da estrela Clarice escreve sabendo que a morte está próxima e põe um pouco de si nas personagens Rodrigo e Macabéa. Ele, um escritor à espera da morte; ela, uma solitária que gosta de ouvir a Rádio Relógio e que passou a infância no Nordeste, como Clarice. A despedida de Clarice é uma obra instigante e inovadora. Como diz o personagem Rodrigo, "estou escrevendo na hora mesma em que sou lido". É Clarice contando uma história e, ao mesmo tempo, revelando ao leitor seu processo de criação e sua angústia diante da vida e da morte. Macabéa, a nordestina, cumpre seu destino sem reclamar. Feia, magra, sem entender muito bem o que se passa à sua volta, é maltratada pelo namorado Olímpico e pela colega Glória. Os dois são o seu oposto: o metalúrgico Olímpico sonha alto e quer ser deputado, e Glória, carioca da gema e gorda, tem família e hora certa para comer. Os dois acabam juntos, enquanto Macabéa, sozinha, continua a viver sem saber por que está vivendo, sem pensar no futuro nem sonhar com uma vida melhor. Até que um dia, seguindo uma recomendação de Glória, procura a cartomante Carlota, uma ex-prostituta do Mangue, que revela a Macabéa toda a inutilidade de sua vida. Mas também enche-a de esperança, prevendo a paixão por um estrangeiro rico, com quem ela iria se casar.

A hora da estrela

júlia dornelas

Ren 

my first Clarice Lispector's book and definitely won't be the last.

The Hour of the Star

Reviews

Highlights