Pecksie
02-02-2011, 01:09 PM
I recently started reading this, the much-hyped first novel of the even-more-hyped Brazilian author (she wrote it in 1944, when she was 19 years old).
A friend of mine joked that this should be said in a whisper only if one wants to be allowed to teach college, but ***insert low voice here*** so far it's been a waste of time! It's a stream-of-consciousness sort of thing, but not the quality of, say, 'Mrs Dalloway' --- nothing like that. Actually, it sounds like she's trying hard to be clever; an immature, egotistical work, full of non sequiturs and meaningless sentences that reek of 'Pay Attention To This Really Important Statement About Life'... I don't know, this is the most overhyped stuff I've read in a long time.
I've read work by Lispector in Spanish and Portuguese before, and it wasn't any better; and now I picked this novel in an English translation by renowned professor Giovanni Pontiero. Three languages, same disappointment. So I'm resigning myself to the fact that here's yet another much praised author whose value (if value it is) is completely lost on me...
What do you people think? Any insights?
A friend of mine joked that this should be said in a whisper only if one wants to be allowed to teach college, but ***insert low voice here*** so far it's been a waste of time! It's a stream-of-consciousness sort of thing, but not the quality of, say, 'Mrs Dalloway' --- nothing like that. Actually, it sounds like she's trying hard to be clever; an immature, egotistical work, full of non sequiturs and meaningless sentences that reek of 'Pay Attention To This Really Important Statement About Life'... I don't know, this is the most overhyped stuff I've read in a long time.
I've read work by Lispector in Spanish and Portuguese before, and it wasn't any better; and now I picked this novel in an English translation by renowned professor Giovanni Pontiero. Three languages, same disappointment. So I'm resigning myself to the fact that here's yet another much praised author whose value (if value it is) is completely lost on me...
What do you people think? Any insights?