The Hour of the Star
by Clarice Lispector
Sleeve design by Grace Atkinson
A voracious reader, artist and designer Grace Atkinson originally chose The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima as her novel of choice before settling on the equally haunting world of Brazilian genius Clarice Lispector. This meta-novella follows poverty-stricken Macabéa and her life in the slums of Rio as a typist. It is narrated by Rodrigo S.M., who pities her and tells with disgust at her misfortune, making it his artistic mission to capture the wretchedness of her existence. He charts her love for Coca-Cola and a diet of hot dogs, her adoration of movies and Marylin Monroe all the while expressing his own hollow struggle with writing. This super-charged ending examines freedom, narration and authorship, lies and truth and establishes this short novella as what is widely recognised as Lispector's masterpiece. Every sentence is a story and I want to re-read the whole thing again and again.
Lispector, though a star in Brazil, has more recently recently gained proper recognition as the genius she is in the Anglophone world, thanks to Benjamin Moser’s translations which retains the strangeness of her prose. He alerts us that ‘the better one’s Portuguese, the harder it is to read Clarice Lispector’ — which hints at something of her entirely original voice.
Grace’s sleeve, inspired by concrete poetry features some of the other titles Clarice considered for the book. Fragmenting titles like ‘Discreet Exit Through the Back Door’ and ‘She Doesn’t Know How to Scream’ — in a thoughtful ode to this book.
Limited edition of 100.
Supported in collaboration with Cou Cou Intimates. The film, interview and photography can be found here.
Where to Find It
Shipping from London.