A HORA DA ESTRELA

Shortly before her death in 1977, Clarice Lispector decided to move away from the introspective tone that characterizes her writing and confront reality head-on. The result of this extroverted leap is A hora da estrela, the most surprising book she ever wrote. While since Near to the Wild Heart, her debut novel, Clarice had placed herself fully at the center of her narratives, this time the scene is occupied by characters who bear no resemblance to her.
The protagonist of A hora da estrela is Macabéa, a destitute woman who is barely aware of her own existence. After losing her only connection to the world—a sickly aunt—she moves to Rio de Janeiro, where she rents a small room, gets a job as a typist, and spends her time listening to the “Radio Clock” station. She falls in love with Olímpico de Jesus, a metalworker from the northeast, who soon betrays her with a coworker. In despair, Macabéa visits a fortune teller, who predicts a radiant future—quite unlike what truly awaits her.
Clarice even invents a false author for the book—the narrator Rodrigo S.M.—but not even this device manages to conceal her presence. Her longing to disappear, later fulfilled by her real-life death, remains unrealized here.
Straddling reality and delirium, with a social lens clouded by the depth of her inner world, Clarice wrote a truly unique novel. A hora da estrela is a powerful tale about the helplessness to which, despite the comfort of language, we are all ultimately subject.