Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector [Hardcover]

Benjamin Moser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2009

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 development as a writer was directly connected to the story of her turbulent life. Born in the nightmarish landscape of post World War I Ukraine, Clarice became, virtually from adolescence, a person whose beauty, genius, and eccentricity intrigued Brazil. "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 the true heir to Kafka as well as the unlikely author of perhaps the greatest spiritual autobiography of the twentieth century. From Chechelnik to Recife, from Naples and Bern to Washington and Rio de Janeiro, "Why This World" strips away the mythology surrounding this extraordinary figure and shows how Clarice Lispector transformed one woman's struggles into a universally resonant art.

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Editorial Reviews

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

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)

An early photograph (undated)

Following her marriage to a diplomat, Lispector attends an embassy reception in Washington, DC (1953)

On the beach in Rio de Janeiro with her sons (1959)

At home in Brazil (circa 1960)

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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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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition, First Printing edition (August 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019538556X
• ISBN-13: 978-0195385564
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #668,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Forgotten Author Gets Her Due, August 22, 2009

By 

C. Hutton "book maven" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector (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.

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous book!, July 21, 2009

By 

A. Tabor (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector (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!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncovering Clarice, January 23, 2010

By 

R. Sellers "saudades1000" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector (Hardcover)

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.