"That rare person who looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf," Clarice Lispector is one of the most popular but least understood of Latin American writers. Now, after years of research on three continents, drawing on previously unknown manuscripts and dozens of interviews, Benjamin Moser demonstrates how Lispector's art was directly connected to her turbulent life. Born amidst the horrors of post-World War I Ukraine, Clarice's beauty, genius, and eccentricity intrigued Brazil virtually from her adolescence. Why This World tells how this precocious girl, through long exile abroad and difficult personal struggles, matured into a great writer, and asserts, for the first time, the deep roots in the Jewish mystical tradition that make her both the heir to Kafka and the unlikely author of "perhaps the greatest spiritual autobiography of the twentieth century." From Ukraine to Recife, from Naples and Berne to Washington and Rio de Janeiro, Why This World shows how Clarice Lispector transformed one woman's struggles into a universally resonant art.
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, August 2009: What the legendary soccer player Pelé is to sport in Brazil, the author "Clarice" is to that country's literary culture. Stunningly brilliant, beautiful and enigmatic, the daughter of Russian-Jewish émigrés achieved instant celebrity at the age of 23 with the publication of her debut novel Near to the Wild Heart. From that auspicious beginning in 1943, she emerged during the post-war decades as one of Latin America's greatest modernist writers and ambassadors of Brazilian culture and avant-garde thought. But, with only a few of her works available in translation, Clarice Lispector (1920-1977) has remained unknown to most English readers until now. Benjamin Moser's Why This World makes up for this long drought by offering a detailed and dramatic biography of Lispector's incredible life and times. Based on new interviews with family and friends, recovered manuscripts, and other fresh sources, Moser crafts a moving and tangible portrait of the famously inscrutable Clarice. --Lauren Nemroff
Book Description
That rare person who looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf, Clarice Lispector is one of the most popular but least understood of Latin American writers. Now, after years of research on three continents, drawing on previously unknown manuscripts and dozens of interviews, Benjamin Moser demonstrates how Lispector's art was directly connected to her turbulent life. Born amidst the horrors of post-World War I Ukraine, Clarice's beauty, genius, and eccentricity intrigued Brazil virtually from her adolescence. Why This World tells how this precocious girl, through long exile abroad and difficult personal struggles, matured into a great writer, and asserts, for the first time, the deep roots in the Jewish mystical tradition that make her both the heir to Kafka and the unlikely author of "perhaps the greatest spiritual autobiography of the twentieth century." From Ukraine to Recife, from Naples and Berne to Washington and Rio de Janeiro, Why This World shows how Clarice Lispector transformed one woman's struggles into a universally resonant art. --Lauren Nemroff
Book Description
That rare person who looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf, Clarice Lispector is one of the most popular but least understood of Latin American writers. Now, after years of research on three continents, drawing on previously unknown manuscripts and dozens of interviews, Benjamin Moser demonstrates how Lispector's art was directly connected to her turbulent life. Born amidst the horrors of post-World War I Ukraine, Clarice's beauty, genius, and eccentricity intrigued Brazil virtually from her adolescence. Why This World tells how this precocious girl, through long exile abroad and difficult personal struggles, matured into a great writer, and asserts, for the first time, the deep roots in the Jewish mystical tradition that make her both the heir to Kafka and the unlikely author of "perhaps the greatest spiritual autobiography of the twentieth century." From Ukraine to Recife, from Naples and Berne to Washington and Rio de Janeiro, Why This World shows how Clarice Lispector transformed one woman's struggles into a universally resonant art. --Lauren Nemroff
Take a Look at Photographs of Clarice Lispector
These portraits from Why This World give readers an intimate look into the public and private life of a writer who was at once famous and enigmatic. (Click on any image to enlarge)
From Publishers Weekly
This pioneering biography of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920–1977)—a genius of character as much as a literary magician—captures the luminescent and singular author for an English-speaking audience that may not be familiar with her. She was born Chaya Pinkhasovna in 1921; soon after, her family left pogrom-torn Ukraine, arriving in Brazil in 1922. She became a law student seeking justice for prisoners and then a journalist, and in 1943, around the time of her marriage to a career diplomat, Lispector published her first book, the critically esteemed Near to the Wild Heart. The life of the roving diplomatic wife took its toll on the visionary and strikingly beautiful Lispector, who also had a longtime love for the homosexual poet Lúcio Cardoso among others. One of her sons was diagnosed as schizophrenic, which further fostered Lispector's sense of isolation. Among her champions was Elizabeth Bishop, but Lispector remains under the Anglo-American literary radar. This well-researched biography by Moser, New Books columnist for Harper's, should send readers in search of this indescribable author, whose work in many ways is closer to cabalistic writing than to more contemporary modernists like Woolf, Kafka or Joyce. 37 b&w photos. (Aug.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By C. Hutton
Format:Hardcover
At nearly 500 pages, this biography of Brazil's greatest female author will be the definitive account of the Ukrainian Jew who emigrated to Brazil as a baby. Her family of origin's history was horrific and her own life was painful -- so it was no surprise that her novels explore the meaning of life. Mr. Moser's storytelling is well-done and he has has done exhaustive research. Once the reader starts this book, you will not be able to put it down.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By R. Sellers
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As one of Clarice's most adoring admirers, having read most of her novels in my native Portuguese, I was captivated by the way Mr. Mosher uncovered the journey of this amazing artist, giving a historical perspective of the world she grew up in, her experiences, her insecurities, her love for writing, her passions, and her everyday life. Masterfully written! Hard to put it down. Clarice's world and words live on.
27 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By A. Tabor
Format:Hardcover
A masterful biography of one of the 20th century's most fascinating writers, too long unknown outside her native Brazil. This engaging, authoritative work should change that!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deeply moving memoir
Brilliantly written memoir of the most poignant Brazilian author. Extremely well researched. For anyone who hás even been astonished by Clarice's sheer genius, I highly... Read more
Published 4 months ago by talita
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too long and detailed
Lispector's life is worth a biography but this one was too lengthy. It felt repetitive and it didn't seem necessary to go into such detail about publishing her works.
Published 19 months ago by Joan
4.0 out of 5 stars
Survivor Syndrome
The book was fascinating because it included so much of the history of Brazil in the first half of the 20th century as well as the history of Ukraine during the same period. Read more
Published on March 30, 2010 by Riane Gruss
5.0 out of 5 stars
Will appeal to college-level collections who have works of the...
WHY THIS WORLD: A BIOGRAPHY OF CLARICE LISPECTOR will appeal to college-level collections who have works of the Brazilian writer on hand. Read more
Published on December 12, 2009 by Midwest Book Review
