June 3rd7pm
Join the New Directions crew on an odyssey, no caper, called: THE LIFE OF THE MIND (to borrow a beloved expression by Helen DeWitt). We'll read staff favorites and New Directions staples with an emphasis on writerly genius and comic relief; and for each doorstopping magnum opus there's a jewel of a book so slight we could barely get a spine on it. Do you have to have read HERSCHT 07768 to understand HERSCHT 07769? If you know you know. If you don't know, come and find out... there will be wine....
This month we'll discuss Clarice Lispector's sensational first book, which tells the story of a middle class woman's life from childhood through an unhappy marriage and its dissolution to transcendence, Near to the Wild Heart, translated by Alison Entrekin.
You could breeze through it, you could let it marinate, or you could reread it twice in one sitting.— Vanity Fair
Lispector is one of the hidden geniuses of twentieth century literature, in the same league as Flann O’Brien, Borges and Pessoa… utterly original and brilliant, haunting and disturbing.— Colm Tóibín
Near to the Wild Heart, published in Rio de Janeiro in 1943, introduced Brazil to what one writer called “Hurricane Clarice”: a twenty-three-year-old girl who wrote her first book in a tiny rented room and then baptized it with a title taken from Joyce: “He was alone, unheeded, near to the wild heart of life.”
The book was an unprecedented sensation — the discovery of a genius. Narrative epiphanies and interior monologue frame the life of Joana, from her middle-class childhood through her unhappy marriage and its dissolution to transcendence, when she proclaims: “I shall arise as strong and comely as a young colt.”
Contact Genay, at bookclubs@mcnallyjackson.com with any questions.
Reserve your place with a $5 voucher, redeemable on the night of the book club meeting on any product in store.